Internet Governance

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

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

Building RIPE SEE: A Conversation With Jan Žorž About Community, Trust, and the Work Behind a Regional Event

Jan Žorž reflects on SEE RIPE's role in uniting a fragmented region, where trust built through informal exchange now underpins internet resilience and helps align engineers with policymakers as regulatory pressures intensify. 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

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

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

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

No Safe Harbor: SCOTUS Scuttles the DMCA

America's Supreme Court, in Cox v Sony, recast online copyright liability, effectively sidelining the DMCA safe harbor and replacing it with a narrow inducement standard that leaves service providers little obligation to meaningfully police infringement. 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

Africa Is Not a Digital Quarry

Africa's internet registry crisis reflects not abstract design flaws but sustained legal and market pressure, as scarce address resources are drawn into global arbitrage, challenging stewardship and exposing the fragility of regional digital governance. more

Trusted Notifier Network (TNN) Core Concept 1: Unfair Cost Transfer and Reversal of Commercial Best

A flawed abuse-response system shifts costs from perpetrators to intermediaries, overwhelming enforcement. The Trusted Notifier Network seeks to realign incentives, curb low-quality reporting, and restore efficiency by embedding trust, accountability, and cost redistribution. more

NOGs at a Crossroads: Confronting the New Demands of Network Operations

Surging outages and mounting losses are increasingly forcing a rethink of network operations, as NOGs now confront a shift from technical exchange to strategic governance, where resilience, leadership, and institutional influence define the profession's future. more

Re-Booting Internet Governance: Resurgence of Ideas and Proposals

Milton Mueller reporting at IGP: At the recently concluded Seoul Conference on Cyberspace, a memo was circulated calling for the creation of a "Commission on the Future of Internet Cooperation." The commission, the confidential memo said, would consist of "civic leaders, ministers, CEOs and technical pioneers." Its purpose will be to "provide new ideas for transnational and multistakeholder proposals for Internet governance." According to the leaked document, the group is supposed to begin work in October and conclude its work with a presentation at the World Economic Forum in January 2014. more

Shape Internet Policy: Apply for ICANN NomCom’s Council Positions

ICANN's 2026 Nominating Committee invites applications for key policy council roles that shape global Internet governance, offering leadership opportunities in domain regulation, digital rights, and multistakeholder decision-making. Deadline: 18 February 2026. more