CGI.br

ISP & telecomgovernance & risk

Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil: the multistakeholder Internet Steering Committee created in 1995 by the Science & Technology and Communications ministries to set internet directives and policies in Brazil, including governance of the .br domain.

Brazil's answer to internet governance - policy by committee rather than by carrier.

CGI.br is the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, created in 1995 with representation from government, the private sector, civil society and the academic community. The composition is the substance: no single sector holds a majority, and the civil society and academic seats are filled by election within their own constituencies rather than by appointment.

It was established years before multistakeholder governance became the standard international vocabulary, which gave Brazil an unusually strong diplomatic position when those debates arrived. The 2009 Decálogo set out ten principles including network neutrality, privacy, freedom of expression and the inimputability of the network, five years before the Marco Civil made several of them statute.

The design decision worth appreciating is what it is not. CGI.br is not a regulator and has no enforcement power; Anatel regulates carriers and CGI.br governs the internet, and Brazil deliberately kept those apart. That separation is uncommon and it is the reason the country's internet policy has been able to develop on its own logic rather than as an appendix to telecommunications law.

Also known as: Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil

← All glossary entries