UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly agreed to make the Internet Governance Forum a permanent U.N. forum, cementing the multistakeholder model that gives governments, industry, civil society and technical experts a seat at the same table, Dec. 16, 2025.
The decision, adopted by consensus as part of the WSIS+20 review, aims to steady global digital policy debates as countries clash over cybersecurity, online rights, artificial intelligence and the widening costs of connectivity. Supporters say a permanent Internet Governance Forum offers continuity for dialogue without handing control of the internet to any single government or institution.
In U.N. remarks during the meeting, speakers framed access and affordability as development issues, warning that persistent gaps in connectivity can harden inequalities in education, health and economic opportunity. The outcome document also spotlights harms tied to the misuse of digital technologies, including surveillance and online abuse, while urging stronger cooperation to curb misinformation and cybercrime.
What the Internet Governance Forum permanence means
The Internet Governance Forum has long been an annual convening space rather than a treaty body. Making it permanent signals that member states expect the forum’s role to expand in practice, even if it remains a venue for discussion rather than rulemaking. The WSIS+20 outcome extends the broader WSIS framework through 2035 and sets that year for a major review of how the new arrangements are working, according to a summary published after the vote.
Digital policy groups said permanence could make it easier to plan multi-year projects, attract more consistent funding and improve participation from underrepresented regions. The Internet Society, which has pushed for keeping the multistakeholder approach, called the move critical for protecting an open and globally connected internet while debates intensify over national controls and fragmented networks.
ICANN, which coordinates key parts of the domain name system, welcomed the WSIS+20 outcome as an affirmation that internet governance requires collaboration among stakeholders, not a state-led takeover. Separately, policy trackers noted the decision formalizes the Internet Governance Forum’s place inside the U.N. system while keeping its open format for governments and non-government participants.
How the Internet Governance Forum got here
The forum’s roots trace back two decades to the World Summit on the Information Society and its Tunis Agenda, which called for creating the Internet Governance Forum as a multistakeholder platform for policy dialogue. The General Assembly later renewed the mandate in five-year and 10-year increments, including a 2011 renewal and a 2016 resolution that extended the forum through 2025.
Those renewals helped the Internet Governance Forum survive repeated cycles of geopolitical tension over who should shape internet policy. In 2005, the creation of the forum was widely seen as a compromise between governments seeking more influence and those arguing that technical coordination and open standards should stay insulated from state control.
What comes next for the Internet Governance Forum
Backers of the 2025 decision say permanence raises expectations: broader geographic participation, clearer links to U.N. development goals and more sustained work on issues such as AI governance, digital public infrastructure and human rights online. Skeptics, meanwhile, are watching whether the Internet Governance Forum’s independence and open participation model can be preserved as the U.N. system absorbs more of the process.
For now, the practical test will be whether a permanent Internet Governance Forum can turn its convening power into measurable progress on inclusion and safety — without becoming another arena for zero-sum geopolitics.
