Who will come out on top at the E-G8?
As the G8 acknowledges the power of the internet, some web executives are issuing a warning to world leaders.
World leaders are meeting in France this week for the G8 summit. The Arab Awakening is set to be top of the agenda, but the innovations that helped to mobilise that awakening will also be discussed.
Mark Zuckerburg, the Facebook CEO, was welcomed to Paris by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president. Zuckerburg was in France with other web and media executives for the first ever so-called E-G8 summit – a discussion on internet governance.
It is a nod to the ever-growing power of the internet. But some of the biggest names in the online industry have offered a stark warning to world leaders: Over-regulate and we will bypass you.
Inside Story asks what impact this meeting will have and who will come out on top.
Joining the discussion are: Adam McCauley, the co-director of Compliance Studies at the Monk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto; Tom Royal, the deputy editor of Computer Active Magazine; and Pavan Duggal, a cyber law lawyer and president of cyberlaw.net and cyberlawasia.net.
This episode of Inside Story aired on Thursday, May 26, 2011.