University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Center for Global Communication Studies Internet Policy Observatory (CGCS) 2-2014 Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance Milton Mueller Ben Wagner Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/internetpolicyobservatory Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Mueller, Milton and Wagner, Ben. (2014). Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance. Internet Policy Observatory. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/internetpolicyobservatory/1 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/internetpolicyobservatory/1 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance Abstract In the summer of 2013, Edward Snowden’s extraordinary leaks about U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance destabilized the foundations of international Internet governance. Speaking at the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2013, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff denounced NSA spying in the strongest terms, and, together with ICANN, started planning conference in Sao Paulo in April 2014 to reinvent Internet governance. This article analyses these events and tries to make sense of what they might mean for the future of global Internet governance. It begins by looking at how the Brazil-ICANN initiative alters the political alignment of actors in the world. Second, it places these developments into a longer historical context, showing how it echoes recurring attempts to develop legitimacy and principles for Internet governance. Third, it applies critical political analysis to the process of organizing and managing the summit itself, with a particular focus on legitimacy and representation.