The Positive Governance of the Internet in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study is concerned with the nature of internet governance and its mechanisms in Saudi Arabia. Most evaluations of the internet in Saudi Arabia focus upon negative (restrictive) aspects of governance whereas this research is focusing upon the more positive governance that enables the use of the internet. Positive governance is an enabler to facilitate the positive usage of the internet and, in the case of Saudi Arabia, enable it to achieve Vision 2030. The approach guiding the concept of positive governance in this research is enabling the use of the internet through two main positive objectives: developing the physical internet infrastructure and developing the logical internet infrastructure by using positive mechanisms. Therefore, this study focuses on the governance of two layers of the internet: first, positive governance of the physical internet infrastructure, whereby it analyses governance issues related to access to physical internet infrastructure and its quality; second, positive governance of logical internet infrastructure, whereby it analyses governance issues related to the domain name systems and internet security. This study focuses on the role of Saudi government and the private sector by assessing their governance mechanisms, and it examines to what extent these mechanisms are effective and fair in encouraging the development of the internet infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. This study conducted semi-structured interviews with elites from governmental and private organisations in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it adopted a policy transfer approach to benefit from the UK’s experiences in internet governance. This study concludes by proposing improvements to develop internet governance framework in Saudi Arabia, which can contribute to achieving the objectives of Vision 2030 related to internet infrastructure.