There’s a new openness since the Lula government came to power at the beginning of 2003 and began working hand-in-hand with Brazilian civil society to change the way the internet is being governed in Brazil. It’s been announced that the committee which handles all Brazilian-registered website addresses will be chosen in public online elections. For the first time since the .br registry was created in 1995, members of civil society will be elected and can participate directly in the deliberations.
Partly on the basis of civil society recommendations laid out last year followed by discussions, the Brazilian government has decided to support this transition to a new internet governance structure for the administration of “.br”. Registro.br has a new interim internet governance body comprising 21 representatives with eleven coming from civil society, including the strategic planning director of APC member in Brazil, Carlos Afonso.
It’s a big change from the pre-Lula era when back in 2002 Brazilian ICT activists were complaining that the management of the Brazilian internet was in the hands of a group of volunteers who were appointed by the Brazilian ministries and yet worked behind closed doors.
