Internet Governance

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Moving Beyond Associated Domain Checks: The Urgent Need to Ban Short-Term Domain Leasing

ICANN's new DNS abuse rules mark progress, yet short-term domain leasing enables fleeting, hard-to-detect attacks. A proposed 30-day minimum lease could curb cybercrime by undermining the economics of weaponised parked domains. more

Enhanced Cooperation v2005 is Dead; Long Live Enhanced Cooperation

The page with the WSIS version of enhanced cooperation of Internet governance, developed in 2005, was turned forever on 30 September 2016 with the expiration of the IANA contract between the NTIA and ICANN. The IANA arrangement was the last issue that remained unchanged since the WSIS Tunis phase where the international community discussed Internet governance related issues for the first time. On 1 October 2016, the concept of enhanced cooperation as defined by the Tunis Agenda ceased to exist. more

The Fractured Web: How Internet Fragmentation Threatens Our Connected World

As governments, firms and engineers reshape networks, the internet is fragmenting into rival systems. Interoperability erodes, raising costs, curbing rights and weakening resilience, with global growth, innovation and cooperation increasingly at risk. more

Exploring Common Ground: Human Rights at ICANN

Our relationship to human rights is ambivalent. We take them for granted, we don't want to be without them, but on the other hand, we see them as somewhat abstract and aspirational, a lofty ideal easily forgotten and set aside in our daily struggles. When it comes to the digital domain, human rights are seen by many as an unwanted source of regulations in an industry that demands "unregulated innovation." more

Africa Can’t Skip IPv4 on the Road to IPv6

Africa's push toward IPv6 cannot bypass IPv4 scarcity, as uneven infrastructure, market dynamics, and governance disputes raise costs, entrench inequality, and risk turning transitional address shortages into a lasting brake on digital development across regions. more

Do We Need Alignment Between Internet Governance and AI Governance?

A debate over aligning internet and AI governance reveals stark differences in origin, incentives and power. While lessons from ICANN's multi-stakeholder model endure, AI's corporate dominance and geopolitical rivalry demand new, bottom-up approaches. more

African SMEs Are Paying the Price for Global Digital Policy Blind Spots

Global digital policy frameworks often overlook the realities of African SMEs, imposing compliance standards shaped by mature economies and infrastructure, thereby constraining innovation, competitiveness, and inclusion in the digital economy. more

The Misinformation War Over Africa’s Internet Registry

Afrinic crisis exposes how legal pressure, proxy advocacy and owned media reshape narratives, potentially threatening global internet registry governance and shifting Africa's IP resources from public stewardship toward market commodification with broader far-reaching institutional consequences. more

Stronger Pro-Growth International Policies Are Needed for the Internet, Says ICC

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has announced that greater efforts to bring about better, more consultative global policy-making are needed to maximize the potential of the Internet to power future economic growth. ICC BASIS (Business Action to Support the Information Society) plans to use its presence at the 8th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF), taking place in Bali, Indonesia, between 22-25 October, to call for attention to a greater collaboration between stakeholder groups and stronger pro-growth international policies in order to help the Internet retain its place as the world’s primary economic enabler. more

How to Restore Trust Into Cyberspace? Beer Has the Answer!

Let's face it, when it comes to digital technologies, fundamental human rights are not on top of the digital agenda. They seem irrelevant and remote, even an obstacle to digital innovation and opportunities. We are quick to pay lip service to them, but we permit the profit motive and stakeholder self-interests to override human rights principles. It does not matter how right and righteous the cause might be; to be implemented, it must be profitable or carry stakeholder benefits. more

Would the “Mensch” in the Room Please Stand Up!

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, in his Internet Governance Outlook 2024, reminded us that 2024, as the years before and future years, will be pivotal for Internet Governance processes. We eagerly await Wolfgang's missives every January, and we trust what we read because we know him, and we trust CircleID. We should be grateful and cherish this example of straightforward, digitally enabled, and trust-based human communication... more

Governing Through Liability: Cox v. Sony and the Fragmentation of the Internet

Cox v. Sony narrows intermediary liability, insisting on intent over knowledge. In doing so, it preserves infrastructure neutrality, resists privatized enforcement, and sharpens a growing divide between American and European models of Internet governance. more

Africa’s AI Governance Crisis Is Not a Regulatory Gap, It Is a Sovereignty Emergency

Africa's looming AI rules expose a deeper problem: foreign-controlled infrastructure, weak enforcement capacity and externally governed data flows are eroding digital sovereignty, leaving states unable to regulate, protect citizens or meet global obligations. more

Regional Internet Registries’ Thick Governance Turns Uniqueness Into Double Extraction

Regional Internet registries, built for coordination, now sit atop scarce IPv4 assets while bearing little liability, suppressing capitalization and imposing "double extraction" that weakens operators, distorts markets and threatens the stability of global internet uniqueness. more

Afnic Reports Record Year for .fr Domain Names in 2025

Afnic's 2025 review finds .fr registrations at a record 4.3m, with strong new domain creation and steady retention, even as competition from .com and shifting digital trends temper expectations for future growth in 2026 overall. more

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