What President Trump's early moves mean for the internet

What you need to know:

  • First, bear in mind the internet’s origin and roots are indisputably US-centric
  • It therefore made sense to eliminate this legal, privileged arrangement the US government has enjoyed over the years
  • Mr Trump’s nominee is expected to oppose the open, non-discriminatory principles that have guided the evolution of the Internet since its invention in the early 1960s

Now that Donald J. Trump is the 45th President of the United States, what will his presidency mean for the internet community, both locally and globally?
His unpredictable, un-orthodox approach to issues of international importance is quite well documented.

It’s too early to say, but we can make some predictions, both from his character and his recent appointments.

First, bear in mind the internet’s origin and roots are indisputably US-centric. So whatever policies or attitude the US president has towards the internet will have repercussions beyond America.

Most internet policy analysts worry about the so-called IANA Transition in the face of the new Trump administration. IANA, which stands for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, is the core agency that actually does the technical work of keeping the internet up and running.

'AMERICA FIRST' ATTITUDE

It does this under a legal contract that binds the US government as well as the more visible, multi-stakeholder global organisation called ICANN.

In October last year, after years of persistent global pressure, the US government agreed to relinquish this legal, sole oversight over the internet in favour of a more global, multi-stakeholder organisation.

Pressure had been piling up from state actors in Europe, Russia and China who argued, rightfully, that the internet had outgrown its US origins and is already more global than US-centric, both in terms of user proportions and the traffic generated.

It therefore made sense to eliminate this legal, privileged arrangement the US government has enjoyed over the years.

Given President Trump’s ‘American First’ attitude, analysts wonder if he could reverse this critical IANA transition, clawing back the legal oversight role the US government just recently surrendered.

Opinion is divided. Some say the transition was legal and so the Trump administration can only reverse it through a legal process. Others claim that if he can issue executive orders against 'Obamacare', the Affordable Care Act passed by his predecessor President Obama, nothing would stop him from doing the same over the IANA transition.

Does it matter for Kenya if Trump reversed the IANA transition? Not directly.

However, European, Russian and Chinese actors may increase their pressure to either create their own islands on the internet or have the internet governed under a United Nations-type of organisation.

Both options would not be good for the evolution of the internet, which has continued to enjoy exponential growth and diversity due to the prevailing loose governance framework inherent within ICANN.

NET NEUTRALITY

Another contentious issue that is likely to be revisited is the debate around Network Neutrality. President Trump has nominated a well-known anti-net neutrality actor as the chairman of the US communications regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Network neutrality simply says the internet is an open, decentralised platform and telecommunication providers should not have any right to discriminate between internet traffic that passes through their networks.

Many telecommunication providers abroad had started favouring some types of internet content over others. As an example, they would degrade the video streaming service of their competitors, such as Netflix, while accelerating their own video service.

In developing countries, including Kenya, the net neutrality debate appears in the form of FreeBasics promotions. For example, Airtel allows subscribers to access Facebook for free, while charging access to other or competing sites.

Mr Trump’s nominee is expected to oppose the open, non-discriminatory principles that have guided the evolution of the internet since its invention in the early 1960s.

Whatever policy or rules the FCC adopts are likely to impact other economies around the world, one way or the other. For now, Kenya can only play the wait-and-see game like everybody else across the globe.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @jwalu