Article Published In Vol.2 (March-April-2014)

Internet Governance from the Regional Kurdistan of Iraq

Author : Bahar Allakaram Tawfeeq, Mohammed Qader Kheder and Nooruldeen Nasih Qader

The Internet is an important part of modern life that can perform lots of tasks in an easy way. The Internet is often depicted as a network of networks as it is not a single physical entity. Moreover, the Internet interconnects millions of networks and links to hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. As the Internet develops, the question of how the Internet should be governed becomes more complex. This paper sets out a deeper discussion on the status of the Internet in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Furthermore, it illustrates how the government controls private companies that provide the Internet. These companies receive the Internet from several countries, namely, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and the others such as Azerbaijan. However, any problems in the Internet of these countries will result in the Internet disconnection in Kurdistan. Due to the lack of Internet filtering, lots of websites have caused many social issues such as child abuse and pornography. This research also examines how these companies have provided the users with fake Internet capacity and how such untrue promises have usually caused people to confront economical issues.

Keywords: Internet Governance; ICANN; WGIG; DNS; ISP; Protocol; Internet filtering; Kurdistan; Iraq