Policy & Regulation

After the Close: What the 2026 gTLD Round Has Already Revealed

ICANN's 2026 gTLD round drew more than 1,600 applications, led by ambitious portfolio investors. But scant brand disclosures and new rules banning private settlements could make contention costlier and reshape the economics of domain ownership. more

AFRINIC’s Constitution Is Africa’s Next Internet Stress Test

AFRINIC's proposed Constitution offers Africa's troubled internet registry a chance to turn years of litigation, disputed elections and institutional paralysis into durable governance, provided reforms constrain external capture, internal concentration and administrative overreach alike. more

AI Duties Are Being Written but the Protocol Layer Is Missing

Recent AI containment failures expose a governance gap: harmful model behavior is often visible at the network boundary but poorly monitored. Adapting proven internet protocols could give governments and companies practical tools to enforce accountability. more

China’s Qianfan Emerges as a Satellite Internet Option for Cuba

China's Qianfan satellite constellation could bring high-speed internet to Cuba, where Starlink remains banned, deepening Beijing's digital influence while giving Havana a connectivity upgrade designed to preserve the government's control over online access. more

Trump Enlists Private Firms for Offensive Cyber Operations

The Trump administration will allow vetted American companies to conduct surveillance and offensive cyber operations against foreign criminal groups, extending private-sector capabilities into cybercrime enforcement while keeping missions subject to federal approval, oversight and legal safeguards. more

Who Should Regulate Space?

Congress has challenged the FCC's authority to regulate satellite safety, exposing a federal oversight gap as orbital traffic surges and raising an urgent question: which agency should be responsible for preventing collisions and debris disasters? more

The Growing Push for Data Sovereignty

Governments, corporations and Indian Tribes increasingly want to keep their data out of Big Tech's hands. The push for data sovereignty could reshape cloud computing, favoring private AI systems over sprawling, centralized data centers. more

From Human Trust to Machine Cryptography: The Infrastructure Deficit in AI Interoperability

As AI agents begin collaborating across the open internet, the absence of trusted identity, authorization, and accountability frameworks threatens interoperability, making cryptographic trust infrastructure essential to building a secure and scalable agentic economy. more

The EU Cyber Resilience Act Regime: A Failure to Know Your Limitations

A cybersecurity historian argues the EU Cyber Resilience Act overreaches through unworkable mandates, sprawling jurisdiction and outdated assumptions, urging a streamlined successor that embraces AI, existing standards and practical enforcement instead of bureaucratic complexity today. more

Who Registers the Domain That Steals Your Data? The Registrar Accountability Gap in India’s DNS Abuse Crisis

India's DNS abuse crisis exposes a registrar accountability gap: malicious domains remain online while vulnerable users bear the cost. Concentrated abuse patterns suggest stronger oversight and faster mitigation could significantly reduce predictable harms nationwide today. more

The Algorithmic Ceiling: How AI Surveillance Criminalizes Disability

AI surveillance systems increasingly classify human differences as algorithmic risk, leaving persons with disabilities vulnerable to exclusion, misclassification, and invisible barriers that threaten decades of progress in accessibility, accountability, and digital inclusion throughout public infrastructure. more

The Question Isn’t Whether the Harm Is Real - It’s Who Should Act

Measuring online abuse can reveal its scale, but not who should intervene. Effective policy must distinguish harm from contractual responsibility, identify the actors best placed to act, and target remedies where they can work effectively. more

Community Networks Offer a Durable Route Across the Digital Divide

An ITU report finds that community-owned networks, backed by reliable technology, flexible financing and supportive regulation, can bring affordable, meaningful internet access to remote populations that traditional providers have struggled to reach at lasting scale. more

Shaping the Future of the IGF: Integration, Relevance and Impact in the Post-WSIS+20 Era

The Internet Governance Forum has secured its permanent place in the UN system. Its next challenge is to strengthen its relevance, deepen multistakeholder collaboration, and deliver greater impact across an increasingly complex and fragmented digital governance landscape. more

UK Unveils AI Cyber Shield to Counter Machine-Speed Digital Threats

Britain is developing Cyber Shield, an AI-powered national cyber defense program designed to detect threats, automate responses and protect critical infrastructure as increasingly sophisticated attacks challenge conventional security and strain existing defensive capabilities. more