What is the role of civil society in Internet governance? Confronting institutional passive perspectives with resource mobilization in Portugal

Multistakeholderism in Internet governance has opened up the door to the participation of civic movements in the debate concerning the rules and future of the Internet. However, much is to be understood on the effective conditions civil society has to participate and its action at the national level. Drawing on the context given by the institutional vision of European and Portuguese authorities about the role of civil society, this article explores the Portuguese activism on Internet governance through the lens of the resource mobilization theory. Research findings indicate that civil society faces structural shortage of resources, lacking the ability to establish national horizontal networking. The most impacting resources are knowledge and legitimation achieved mainly through international collaborations. Although there is a general defense of the principle of multistakeholderism in European discourse, there is no strategy to amplify the voice of civil society at the European nor at the national level. The article argues that, in the Portuguese case, horizontal integrated networking could leapfrog organized civil society toward effective involvement in policy processes.