Internet governance

Reflecting the multi-stakeholder involvement—including industry, users, governments, academia and others—in the development and growth of the internet, a range of organisations have a role in international internet governance.

The Department participates in a number of domestic and international fora that have a role in internet governance. These fora consider issues such as domain name allocation, technical standards, intellectual property and internet security.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbering (ICANN) plays a key role in oversight of the critical internet resources and acts as a forum for stakeholder discussion in this area.

The Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a multi-stakeholder discussion on internet public policy issues, is a key outcome of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The Forum is being held annually over a five-year period from 2006.

The ‘.au’ Domain Administration (auDA) is the independent, not-for-profit administrator of the ‘.au’ country code top level domain.

The Department closely monitors developments on internet governance and handles a range of international and domestic issues, including Australia's participation in the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) to the ICANN.