NetMundial Initiative

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The NETmundial Initiative (NMI) was a controversial effort to create a new platform for internet governance issues. The NMI was named after an internet governance conference held by the Brazilian government and DNS overseer ICANN in May 2014; it was intended to help turn the conference's final principles into action.^[1]

Despite the backing of both the US and Brazilian governments, the initiative ran into trouble almost immediately when it was revealed that the three lead organizers had decided to award themselves 'permanent seats' on its 25-member council, leading to comparisons with the United Nations' Security Council.^[2] Despite efforts by the organizers to respond to criticism, the initiative was rejected by a number of key internet organizations including the Internet Society^[3] and the Internet Architecture Board.^[4] As a result, two of the five proposed permanent seats were never taken up.^{[citation needed]}

The initiative ran for 18 months until its 'mandate' ran out in July 2016. Just prior to that deadline, both ICANN and the World Economic Forum said they were withdrawing from the project.^[5] At a planning meeting, the US government representative called for the NMI to be shut down. ICANN and the WEF had contributed $200,000 each. Plans for re-election of council members were postponed and then cancelled. The remaining member - CGI.br - initially suggested it would continue the initiative in some form but in August 2016, the initiative announced an open call^[6] for a new group to take over the 'solutions map' that was its most significant work product.