Policy & Regulation

Policy & Regulation / Recently Commented

U.S. Blocks Foreign-Made Routers Over Cybersecurity Fears

America has barred imports of new foreign-made routers, citing cybersecurity risks tied to espionage and infrastructure disruption, signalling a broader push to reduce reliance on Chinese technology in critical network systems. more

When the Internet Doesn’t Recognize You: Universal Acceptance and India’s Welfare Crisis

India's digital welfare systems, built without universal acceptance, have excluded millions from vaccines, wages and food, revealing how technical design choices can entrench inequality and reshape access to basic rights across rural regions today in India. more

China, AFRINIC, and the Dangerous Precedent That Could Destabilize the Global Internet

A dispute over 6.2m IPv4 addresses at AFRINIC exposes how litigation and market incentives could erode regional stewardship, setting a precedent that risks turning the Internet's allocation system into a vehicle for global arbitrage. 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

FCC Alert on Cybersecurity Risks

The FCC warns telecom companies of rising ransomware threats after attacks quadrupled since 2022. The agency urges stronger defenses including patching, multifactor authentication, network segmentation, and closer oversight of vendors and incident response planning. more

Iran’s Digital Arsenal: When Invisible Fences Rise in the Conflict

Iran's near-total internet blackout during airstrikes reveals how cyberattacks, sanctions and platform power can isolate a nation. The conflict shows digital infrastructure, satellites and cloud services becoming decisive weapons in modern geopolitical competition worldwide today. more

Why DNS-Level Piracy Enforcement Is a Trap

Efforts to combat online piracy are pushing courts to weaponise the Internet's naming system. Turning DNS operators into enforcement agents may deliver quick takedowns, but risks collateral damage, jurisdictional conflict and long-term fragmentation of the Internet. more

AI: The Squandered Opportunity in India

India's AI summit promised a Global South rethink of digital governance. Instead, a weak declaration and Delhi's accession to America's Pax Silica exposed widening power asymmetries, leaving countries like Brazil outside the real circuitry of control. more

Munich Cybersecurity Conference 2026: Moving Into the Twilight Zone

At Munich's twin security gatherings, leaders warned that cyber conflict, transatlantic rifts and weaponised AI are pushing the rules-based order into a perilous transition, where deterrence falters, norms erode and digital sovereignty trumps multistakeholder ideals. more

The Sovereignty Paradox: What Iran’s 2026 Shutdown Reveals About the Fragmenting Internet

Iran's 2026 internet shutdown was not a glitch but a trial of digital sovereignty, revealing how easily connectivity can be weaponised to silence society, concentrate state power, and fracture the promise of a global internet. 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

Undersea Cables as a Layer of the AI Tech Stack

As AI shifts from experimentation to real-world deployment, its unseen foundation - undersea cables - emerges as a strategic frontier. Their resilience may shape not only infrastructure policy but the outcome of US-China AI competition. more

Who Authorizes Legitimacy if the Community Is Absent in the Redefined Procedural Space?

In African Internet governance, procedural authorship is quietly displacing community legitimacy. When conveners, not members, define reform processes, legitimacy becomes retrospective and trust erodes -- not by intention, but through unchecked structural roles. more

WSIS+20: A Small Light of Hope in a Darkening Political Landscape

Despite deep geopolitical divides, the WSIS+20 outcome document was adopted by consensus, preserving a multistakeholder vision for the digital future while deferring controversial issues to a time more conducive to progress. more

Looking Ahead: ICANN’s Upcoming Policy on DNS Abuse Mitigation

ICANN is finalising a policy to curb DNS abuse, aiming to preserve internet stability while defending freedom of expression. With regulatory pressure mounting, the multistakeholder model faces a critical test. more