A two-day discussion in Paris (June 28-29) about Internet governance has revealed a distinct leaning in the direction of keeping the web open and free and maintaining a ‘light touch’ on regulation.

A draft document under discussion, the OECD Communiqué on Internet Policy-making, called for a more active role by search engines and Internet service providers in monitoring activities such as copyright abuse, censorship and privacy violations. But online rights groups objected on the ground that would effectively turn Internet companies into private police.

In its final document, the OECD conceded that the Internet “has achieved global interconnection without the development of any international regulatory regime,” and added that such a regime could risk undermining its growth.

The document underlined the benefits that “today’s light touch-flexible regulation has brought in driving innovation and economic growth.” A recommendation that countries adopt their own legal frameworks to curb copyright infringement through measures such as cutting off Internet access as Britain and France have done, was rejected by several civil society groups at the meeting.

The Paris-based OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) was created in 1961 as a forum for the 34 world’s richest nations to come together to discuss and promote free market economic policies.