Policy & Regulation

A New Frontier for the Global South

The Fund for Internet Research and Education - FIRE - is an initiative of AFRINIC that gives Grants and Awards to outstanding projects that use the Internet to provide innovative solutions to Africa's unique education, information, infrastructure, and communication needs. FIRE Africa is part of an initiative called The Seed Alliance that has LACNIC's FRIDA Program, APNIC's ISIF.Asia program, and the Internet Society as members. more

Over 80 European Organizations Demand Protection for Net Neutrality

Today, more than 80 organizations, represented by The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) and European Digital Rights (EDRi), sent a letter to the European Commission demanding the end of dangerous experimentation with the functioning of the Internet in Europe and the protection of the principles of openness and neutrality. more

June 8 Deadline for Survey on Recommendations for Future of the Internet

What do you think must be done to ensure the development of an open, trusted, accessible, and global Internet in the future? As part of the Internet Society's "Internet Futures" project, we'd like your input on recommendations for Internet leaders and policy makers. For more background, please read "Help Shape the Future of the Internet" by my colleague Constance Bommelaer, or browse through the Internet Futures pages. more

The Second Machine Age Calls for Vision and Leadership

This post I've been pondering on for a long time, but never found the right angle and perhaps I still haven't. Basically I have these observations, thoughts, ideas and a truckload of questions. Where to start? With the future prospects of us all. Thomas Picketty showed us the rise of inequality. He was recently joined by Robert J. Gordon who not only joins Picketty, but adds that we live in a period of stagnation, for decades already. "All great inventions lie over 40 years and more behind us", he points out. more

Thailand Passes Law Giving Sweeping Powers to State Cyber Agencies

Thailand's military-appointed parliament on Thursday passed a controversial cybersecurity law which gives sweeping powers to state cyber agencies. more

Representation in Multistakeholder Model

In the recent years, a new form of multilateral cooperation has emerged that is more inclusive and open than the traditional intergovernmental approaches. A solutions oriented governance model where multiple stakeholders work in collaboration to achieve the purpose. These stakeholders could be from various states working at the global level or it could be bound to a nation-state which is referred to as the mutlistakeholderism at the regional or local level.  more

eco to Address the Impact of Brexit on the Domain Industry

eco, which is the largest internet industry association in Europe, is holding a virtual meeting later this month to discuss Brexit. The meeting, which is scheduled for July 27th at 1200 UTC, will be the first of several dialogues among industry to discuss the potential impact of the UK's exit from the EU on the domain name industry. As I mentioned in a recent post, the exit of the UK from the EU has an "unknown" impact on how domain name registries and registrars will interact with UK based registrants. more

Internet Consolidation at EuroDIG 2019: Questions in Need of Answers

At EuroDIG 2019 a workshop was organised around the topic of consolidation on the Internet. It was organised around four angles: technique, competition, society and human rights and; future research. One thing became extremely clear: no one contested that consolidation is taking place nor that this already has and will have an impact on the Internet and consecutively on society. more

ISPs May Be Required to Remove Content, Shutdown Websites Under New EU-Wide Rules

Under a draft legislation approved by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee on Tuesday, national enforcement authorities would be required to have a set of powers to detect and halt online breaches of consumers' rights across the European Union. more

An Update on Telemedicine

I’ve been keeping tabs on the news about telemedicine since it was touted throughout the industry as one of the big benefits of having good broadband. One piece of news comes from a survey conducted by Nemours Children’s Health. This is a large pediatric health system with 95 locations in Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The company treats almost half a million children annually. Nemours released a report on Telehealth in July. The report was based on a survey of 2,056 parents/guardians of children. The survey had some interesting results, more

Thinking Carefully About New gTLD Objections: Limited Public Interest (Part 2 of 4)

The second installment in my four-part series on New gTLD objections will focus on the limited public interest ("LPI") variety. The overarching theme however is essentially the same: new gTLD objections are generally more complicated (and costly) than UDRP actions and need to be approached with care. In fact, LPI represents one of the best examples of the tough climb that would-be objectors are likely to face. Understanding exactly what is required beforehand - and whether or not you can deliver - is absolutely critical. more

The Importance of Contributing to the ITU CWG-Internet Open Consultation by 1 August 2013

The Council Working Group on international Internet-related public policy issues (CWG-Internet) was established as a result of resolutions at the 2010 ITU Plenipotentiary to discuss a wide range of Internet issues that had public policy implications... These are all issues that concern all stakeholder groups in the Internet ecosystem. And, indeed, these are all issues being discussed in varying levels of detail by all stakeholder groups. The difference with the CWG-Internet, however, is that both its documents and meetings are closed to all non-Member State representatives. more

Russians Take to the Streets to Protest Against New Internet Restrictions

Thousands of Russians in Moscow and other cities rallied on Sunday against tighter internet restrictions. The protest is reported to be one of the most prominent in the Russian capital in years. more

Quo Vadis ICANN?

The short history of Internet Governance is full of errors, failures, and - mainly - omissions. Despite the shortcomings, we also must acknowledge the achievements of past and present internet governance efforts. In particular, ICANN and its stakeholder constituencies have delivered on the mandate of a stable, secure and resilient Internet. Working with the IANA, IAB and IETF, the operational functions of IP addresses, and the Protocol Assignment and DNS must be seen as an unqualified success. more

Cybersecurity Is Failing Big-Time and This Is Hard to Fix

It has become clear that having a big cybersecurity war room is not enough to deliver true end-to-end security throughout the complex networks, systems and structures on which our modern society is based. Furthermore, looking at the forever changing draconian government interventions in this space, it is also obvious that they are often stabbing in the dark. more