Internet Governance

Internet Governance / Most Viewed

Time to Start Calling Facebook “The Dark Empire” and Regulate It Accordingly

It appears people, governments, regulators and legislators worldwide may have forgotten Facebook's complicit involvement with Cambridge Analytica (CA). It is possible that new priorities such as the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 may have pre-occupied them, and rightly so. But an unprecedented data breach in 2019 unfolded this weekend, bringing a recurring nightmare of the past back into today's reality. more

New German Legislation Provides Copyright-Related Internet Platform Obligations

Recently, there has been an interesting development in the liability of Internet intermediaries in Germany, and I will comment here in this text. The "Act on Copyright Liability Online Content Sharing Service Providers" began to apply on August 1, 2021 in the country. This act is a German attempt to deal with the controversy generated by the approval in 2019 of the new European directive on copyright, specifically with article 17. more

The CSTD WG on IGF, Multi-Stakeholderism, and Short Deadlines

One of the many Internet governance discussions currently taking place is at the CSTD Working Group on improvements to the IGF, which is due to have its second and final meeting on 24 and 25 March 2011. Despite an unpromising beginning, with only governments on the Working Group (WG), it is now a multi-stakeholder environment, with the technical, business and civil society represented at the WG and genuinely welcomed by governments to participate in the WG's deliberations. more

Supporting Organizations Marginalized in ICANN Accountability Proposal

The Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) make a number of helpful recommendations to improve organizational accountability at ICANN, however one aspect of the plan is deeply flawed: changing the role of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) from purely an "advisory" role to a "decision making" role over fundamental matters at ICANN, including its governance. more

India’s Net Neutrality Win: Lessons for Developing Countries

On 8th February, 2015, Internet users celebrated news that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had passed regulation prohibiting ISPs from discriminating access to data services based on content". This directive follows similar developments in the U.S, E.U, Chile et al, and is a huge milestone in the fight for Net Neutrality: the principle that ISPs should treat all Internet traffic the same way. Meanwhile, Net Neutrality issues are not unique to India. more

Global Technical Internet Related Issues That Need Fixing

Given its engineering background, many positive contributions can be made by the engineering community in the broader ICT world to assist in addressing some of the broader internet issues, often addressed within the more limited telecoms environment.. Of course some of this is already happening; however much more work would be needed to strengthen the technical foundations of the internet. Just as an example, the type of issues that could be addressed by a broader ICT engineering foundation could include... more

Regulation as Innovation

The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) has issued a press release in which its Executive Board Chair and the ITU's Secretary-General "reiterated the importance of the WCIT to lay the framework that will facilitate the further growth of an innovative, and sustainable future for the telecom and information and communication technology sector (including the Internet)". more

Your Choice

Let's face it. The suppression of free speech is happening all over the Internet. Examples range from fanatics shouting down "unbelievers" in chatrooms to governments silencing voices to rig elections. We are equally convinced that freedom of speech as a principle should be generally upheld in cyberspace. This principle is strong where freedom and democracy are strong. It shines bright for those in search of freedom and democracy. Well, folks, think again. A recent experience has made me think otherwise. more

Video: IETF Chair Jari Arkko on “Pervasive Monitoring and the Internet”

Today at the RIPE 67 event in Athens, Greece, IETF Chair Jari Arkko gave a presentation on "Pervasive Monitoring and the Internet" where he spoke about the ongoing surveillance issues and: What do we know? What are the implications? What can we do? Similar to his earlier article on the topic, Jari looked at the overall issues and spoke about how Internet technology should better support security and privacy. more

Cuba Censors SMS Messages ... for Now

What could the Cuban government do with Russia-style access to Facebook data? What sorts of fake news could they create and circulate on YouTube and Pinterest? What can be done to control the dark side of the Cuban Internet? Cuba is about to hold a referendum on a proposed constitution that the government supports and Eduardo Sanchez posted a test showing that SMS messages with anti-referendum terms. more

ICANN 55 Next Week In Marrakech - What to Expect

As you may know, ICANN holds three public meetings every year. The most recent one, ICANN 54, was held in Dublin... So the next ICANN meeting is being held in Marrakech, Morocco starting Saturday, March 5th through March the 10th. Up until now all three meetings were the same length and had the same basic structure. However, from this year onwards, that'll change. How that will play out in reality, however, is anyone's best guess. more

The Governance of the Internet

Among the hottest topics at the Broadband Leadership Summit, which was held during the ITU Telecom World 2011 in Geneva, were the issues in relation to the security of the various aspects of the digital economy. The key issue in relation to the governance of the internet relates to the many political, social and cultural differences between countries. This is one of the most contentious issues. more

WikiLeaks and Stuxnet - Smart Grid Wakeup Calls

The past couple of weeks have been pretty seminal for anyone concerned about the state of Internet security and the bigger picture as to how much we could - do - and should - trust the Web. These two strange words - WikiLeaks and Stuxnet - have suddenly entered our lexicon and there is a lot to be concerned about in the world of smart grid. more

Do-Not-Track: Still Not a Great Idea

Back in August, FTC chair Jon Leibowitz suggested an Internet do-not-track registry, analogous to the telephone do-not-call registry. At the time, I thought it wasn't a good idea for both technical and non-technical reasons. This week, the FTC published an online privacy report recommending the same thing, and Rep. Ed Markey promises to offer a bill next year to mandate do-not-track for children. With all this interest, might it be a good idea now? Maybe. more

Post JPA: Tempered Happiness

The Affirmation gladdens me. The Affirmation worries me. The Affirmation makes me wonder what is next. I am of course referring to the Affirmation of Commitments between the United States Department of Commerce (DoC) and ICANN. In the respect that the US is loosening its grip on ICANN a little, this is a good thing. Symbolically, of course it is gigantic... more

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