What is Internet Governance?

While there is no single definition of what Internet Governance (IG) is, one definition is probably most widely referred to:

“Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.”

This definition was developed in 2005 by the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG report), a spin-off working group from the WSIS summit(s) in 2003 and 2005 (more information on WSIS). In 2025, WSIS+20 Review reaffirmed the original WSIS working definition of Internet Governance.

Who’s involved?

As the definition shows, IG involves a multitude of actors: public and private actors as well as civil society.

Actors include individual governments, intergovernmental organisations (such as the UN and its agencies, the European Union’s institutions, the Council of Europe), multistakeholder organisations (such as ICANN), private sector (such as ISPs and online platforms), civil society (such as human rights groups), but also more specific interests, such as the technical community to which CENTR and its members belong.

For an overview of the actors involved in policies and operations related to “the internet”, please refer to this infographic on the “internet ecosystem”.

What do they discuss?

The above-mentioned WGIG also defined a range of public policy issues that matter in IG. To this day, these topics still dominate the agenda of many a meeting today. They were clustered in four categories, including:

• Infrastructure and management of critical Internet resources (administration of the domain name system (link to DNS) and IP addresses, the root server system, technical standards, etc.)
• Use of the Internet (spam, network security, cybercrime, etc.)
• Internet issues with a wider impact (intellectual property rights, international trade)
• Development of Internet Governance (capacity building in developing countries)

Here are some examples of different organisations' views about internet governance:

• European Commission – International Digital Strategy (2025)
• European Commission – Web 4.0 and virtual worlds initiative (2023)
• European Commission – Declaration for the Future of the Internet (2022)
• European Commission – Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade (2020)
• European Parliament – Resolution on the renewal of the mandate of the Internet Governance Forum (2015)
• European Commission – Internet Policy and Governance Europe's role in shaping the future of Internet Governance (2014)
• Council of Europe – ICANN and Human

Where do they discuss?

The IGF was originally founded on the basis of a mandate issued at the WSIS. It is an annual multistakeholder gathering offering a space for discussion and collaboration. The IGF is also further differentiated into regional forums (such as EuroDIG in Europe) and national initiatives (such as the IGF in the Netherlands).. While the mandate initially endowed on the IGF was subject to a periodic renewal, the WSIS+20 Review process made the mandate permanent. For more information on the IGF and its mandate, see the WSIS+20 Review Outcome document.

Where can I learn more?

• CENTR Principles for the Next Digital Decade
• CENTR Paper on “Why we need multistakeholder Internet Governance”
• CENTR Feedback to the Global Digital Compact
• CENTR Paper on WSIS
• CENTR Paper on IGF and ITU

 Internet ecosystem