Internet universality is a concept and framework adopted by UNESCO in 2015 to summarize their position on the internet. The concept recognizes that "the Internet is much more than infrastructure and applications; it is a network of economic and social interactions and relationships, which has the potential to enable human rights, empower individuals and communities, and facilitate sustainable development." The concept is based on four principles agreed upon by UNESCO member states: human rights, openness, accessibility, and multi-stakeholder participation, abbreviated as the R-O-A-M principles. Through the concept of internet universality, UNESCO highlights four fields of internet policy and practice: access to information and knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, ethics and behavior online. The principles represent a tool for UNESCO to understand internet governance through the internet universality indicators.
History The term was agreed upon by UNESCO's General Conference in 2015 to integrate UNESCO's work into the framework of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). It is part of UNESCO's project to fulfil the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. During the 37th session of the General Conference, UNESCO Member States affirmed the principle of the applicability of human rights in cyberspace. The concept of internet universality was then built upon the 'CONNECTing the dots' conference outcome document on 3–4 March 2015.
Wider context The internet can connect individuals, localities, nations, or continents to information, expertise and communities distributed globally. It can also be used to create, disseminate, and consume information and knowledge resources. This potential for reconfiguring access to information and knowledge, as well as changing freedom of expression, privacy, and trends in ethics and behavior, has been a theme in academic research. Information and communication technologies, such as social media, developing mobile internet, and the Internet of Things (IoT), include developments like cloud computing, big data, and robotics. By 2014, over three billion people had gained access to the internet worldwide. However, those with access often may not access all its content due to language barriers and skills deficits. The global diffusion of the internet is progressing, while public knowledge about the internet is changing with it, in ways ranging from mobile applications and payment systems to social media and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It has also become involved in economic development.
Internet Universality Principles: R-O-A-M The R-O-A-M principles constitute a theoretical framework for evaluating the state of each key fields of internet policy. The framework emphasizes a set of principles applied to the internet, focusing on human rights, openness, accessibility and multi-stakeholder participation.
Rights-based The internet changes the perception of human rights. UNESCO and the United Nations broadly state that human rights should apply to all aspects of the internet, including freedom of expression, privacy, cultural diversity, gender equality, and education, balanced with rights that apply to both digital and non-digital life.
Openness UNESCO and the United Nations' ideas, applied to the internet, discuss global standards, interoperability, open application interfaces, open science, documents, text, data, and flows. Social and political support for open systems, not only technical expertise, is part of this principle. Transparency is part of openness, as well as a dimension of seeking and receiving information, making rights and openness interdependent.
Accessibility The internet raises discussions of digital divides, digital inequalities, and exclusions based on skills, literacy, language, gender or disability. Business models for internet activity may also be created to increase individuals' trust in the preservation, quality, integrity, security, accessibility, and authenticity of information on it.
Multi-stakeholders participation
Participation in decision-making has been part of the internet from its outset, incorporating users and their perspectives in developing, using, and governing it. It is possible to define several categories of stakeholders in the internet, with subgroups as well: states, businesses and industries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society, international governmental organization, research actors, individuals, and others. Each of these categories has different stakes in the future of the internet, but there are also areas of great overlap and interdependence. For instance, some NGOs are likely to prioritize the promotion of human rights, while parliaments are primary actors in defining laws on that concept. Other stakeholders include search engine providers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Individuals also play a part in the concept of rights on the internet.
Cross-cutting factors Aside from the four main factors (R-O-A-M), UNESCO has also identified five cross-cutting factors. Two of these are concerned with gender and age equality, one with sustainable development (i.e., the role of the internet in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals developed by the UN), another with internet trust and security, and the last with legal and ethical properties of the internet.
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