Policy & Regulation

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We Are Protecting the Internet, Not Giving It to the United Nations

Like many foreigners, I follow U.S. politics closely. What happens in Washington, D.C. on trade, economics, foreign policy, and security matters can often have ripple effects across the world. This is also true with respect to internet policy, and like many who work in the internet industry, I am getting increasingly concerned by some of the news coming out of Washington. more

FCC Drops Every Major Item from the Agenda

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has taken all rulemakings off agenda a day after the Republican Party lawmakers' request. more

An Economic Perspective on Internet Centrality

The IETF met in November 2022 in London. Among the many sessions that were held in that meeting was a session of the Decentralised Internet Infrastructure Research Group, (DINRG). The research group's ambitions are lofty: DINRG will investigate open research issues in decentralizing infrastructure services such as trust management, identity management, name resolution, resource/asset ownership management, and resource discovery. more

Are These the Last Days of Boys’ Club IT?

In the year 2016, 55 years after the human race launched a person into space; the women are still not earning the same wage as their male counterparts. In the UK, the gender pay gap was 19.7% in 2013, the last year we have the statistics for. This was 0.1 per cent worse than in 2012. In the US, women earn 79ยข for every dollar that men earn. As explained in this great article from Vox, the issue is much more complex than mere numbers. more

SEC Now Giving Companies a 4-Day Deadline to Reveal Cyberattacks

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced new regulations requiring companies to disclose substantial cybersecurity incidents. These rules also mandate yearly disclosure of key information regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance. The mandate applies to foreign private issuers as well. more

US Seeks to Intervene in EU vs Facebook Case

At a hearing in the Irish High Court, the US government has sought to intervene in the case between a privacy activist and Facebook. Consequently, the court has been adjourned for two weeks to give it - and other parties - time to file a motion in this regard. more

The WSIS+10 Outcome Document - Some Initial Thoughts

The final outcome document of the WSIS +10 Review was released late last night. I thought I would give you some initial impressions as we enter the week of the WSIS+10 Review at the United Nations in New York. The text endorses the central tenet of the multistakeholder model of governing ourselves on the Internet and re-commits to the Tunis agreement. It extends the mandate of the IGF for 10 years recognizing the role that this Forum plays in bottom up governance processes. more

FAA Announces $175,000 Fine Against SpaceX for Failure to Submit Required Pre-Launch Information

SpaceX, the leading provider of commercial launches in the United States, is subject to FAA regulations and must provide safety data prior to any attempt at launch. Last year, SpaceX performed a record 61 launches, with 34 of them primarily for the Starlink program. more

Video Interviews from ICANN 52 in Singapore

CircleID in collaboration with the team from Dyn Inc. and ICANNWiki, brings you the following video interviews conducted by Susan Chalmers at ICANNWiki during the ICANN 52 meetings in Singapore (8- 2 February 2015). more

Google, Facebook Latest to Join Net Neutrality Protest on Wednesday

Google and Facebook, two companies that generally stay on the other side of the Net Neutrality debate, have told reporters they will be participating in the July 12th net neutrality protest. more

VoIP: Beyond the Status Quo

On New Year's Eve 2008 I felt compelled to respond to the stories being written about the Death of VoIP which lead to my recent blog post: VoIP is NOT Dead!. Since then, I've enjoyed many of the conversations that have continued to take place in the comment sections of a number of blogs, including this one. My belief is the future is unwritten and if the conditions are right people will return to the space. But we need to embrace innovation and change and encourage people to be disruptive. What follows is a continuation of the conversation. more

Realizing the Promise of AI in a World Where Human Rights Matter

Artificial Intelligence, AI, is often portrayed and perceived as just one more innovative stage in a long line of ever more sophisticated and powerful tools that humans use to survive and prosper. AI is different! As its name states, its ambition and goal is not to be just another tool but to introduce an artificial (digital) intelligence that is free from the weaknesses humans confront when doing some tasks. more

EU Standards Must Be Freely Available

In 2019, two organisations - Public.Resource.org of Sebastopol, California, and the Right to Know GLC of Dublin - brought suit against the European Commission for violating the fundamental rights of citizens to access the standards they are required by law to know, and attempting to protect intellectual property by copyright which lacked originality because it was, inter alia, provided by public governmental and industry sources. more

FCC Launched Investigation Into Exclusive Handset Deals

Grant Gross of IDG News report: "The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will launch an investigation into exclusive handset deals between mobile carriers and handset makers, acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said. Copps has instructed FCC staff to open an inquiry into exclusive handset deals, he said during a speech at the Pike and Fischer Broadband Summit Thursday." more

The Illusion of Internet Governance

There's been a lot of controversy over the U.S. Government's proposal to give up their supervisory role over ICANN. This lead Karl Auerbach, one of the only people ever elected to represent end-users in cyberspace, to write this letter to Congress. Karl did an excellent job as North America's first elected representative in cyberspace. He fought for things that would have made Internet governance more representative, and more transparent. more