Timeline

WTO E-Commerce Moratorium

The World Trade Organization (WTO) adopts the Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce introducing a moratorium on duties in global e-commerce. This moratorium has been extended ever since.

Cybersecurity at the United Nations

Cybersecurity/information security makes it to the agenda of the UN in 1998, when the Russian Federation introduces a draft resolution in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly. The resolution is adopted without a vote. Later on, several intergovernmental processes – six Groups of Governmental Experts and two Open-Ended Working Groups – are established to address issues related to the use of ICTs in the context of international security.

Establishment of ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is established to coordinate main internet technical resources. Until September 2016, ICANN was mandated by the United States Department of Commerce to perform the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions, including globally alocating Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other numbering resources to the Regional Internet Registers (RIRs), introducing changes to the main DNS root zone file (the global Internet ‘address book’), and managing the .INT top-level domain. Starting October 2016, these functions are performed by ICANN’s affiliate Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), following the transition of the IANA functions stewardship from the US government to the global multistakeholder community.

Google is born

Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google on 4 September 1998.

Adoption of the Basel Ban Amendment

The parties to the Basel Convention adopted the Ban on Exporting Hazardous Waste to Developing Countries in 1995, which prohibits the export of hazardous wastes from the members of the EU, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Liechtenstein to all other countries. The amendment has been accepted by 86 countries and the European Union, but has not entered into force until 2019 (as it required ratification by three-fourths of the member states to the Convention).

WTO founded

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organisation that deals with the rules of trade between its members. Its main functions include: administering WTO trade agreements; providing a forum for trade negotiations; settling trade disputes; monitoring national trade policies; providing technical assistance and training for developing countries; and ensuring co-operation with other international organisations. Several internet governance and digital trade policy related issues are discussed in the WTO, including e-commerce, intellectual property (IP), and market access for ICT products and services.

Amazon was founded

In 1994, Jeff Bezos incorporated Cadabra Inc. which he later renamed Amazon. Amazon.com went online in 1995. It started as an online bookstore and later diversified to become the electronic commerce and cloud computing company it is today.

The World Wide Web becomes public domain

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web (www) while working at CERN. On 30 April 1993, CERN puts the www software in the public domain, and later makes a release available with an open licence, paving the way for the web to flourish.