Why Facebook Is Not a Common Carrier

The ever-entertaining Fifth Circuit has recently upheld a strange Texas law that forbids most kinds of social media moderation. (Techdirt explains many of the reasons the court is wrong, so I won't try.) This brings us to the trendy question of whether Facebook, Twitter, et al. should be treated as common carriers. You can make a good argument to separate the point-to-point data transport from the ISP and make the former common carriage. more

Controversy Looms as Pakistan Passes Cybercrime Law, Critics Say Violates Human Rights

Pakistan's National Assembly on Thursday passed the controversial cybercrime bill through a majority vote that prescribes a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail and 5 million rupees in fine for cyber-terrorism. more

Negotiating the WSIS+10 and the Future of the Internet

After two and a half years of technical analysis and discussions, six months of deliberations among all stakeholders, and intense negotiations at the United Nations, at three o'clock in the morning on December 12, 2015, the talented co-facilitators from the United Arab Emirates and Latvia dropped the gavel on the outcome document for the ten-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). That consensus document presents international principles that will guide the UN's work on Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-related issues. more

UN Human Rights Council Passes Resolution ‘Unequivocally’ Condemning Internet Shutdowns

United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted resolutions condemning measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access or dissemination of information on the Internet in violation of international human rights law. more

DNS: The Proven, Eco-Friendly Alternative to Blockchain and NFTs

As the world races towards digital transformation, the technologies we choose will have a lasting impact on our planet. Blockchain, NFTs, and other crypto assets have garnered much attention for their ability to securely and immutably store records. However, the environmental cost of maintaining these technologies is often overlooked. The energy consumption required to sustain blockchains, particularly those using Proof of Work (PoW), is enormous... more

ICANN Postpones 52nd Meeting in Marrakech Due of Ebola

Morocco World News reports today that ICANN has decided to postpone its 52 meeting initially scheduled to take place in Marrakech. The meeting was due to be held in Morocco’s main tourist destination on February 8-12 however, according to sources, the postponing decision was made by the organization due to the spread of the Ebola virus and after the Moroccan government stressed the need to avoid organizing major gatherings of people coming from different countries. more

Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group Releases Statement on ICANN Staff’s Accountability Plan

Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) today released the following statement on ICANN staff's accountability plan... "A number of public comments and discussions in London focused on the inherent conflict of interest behind staff developing its own accountability and transparency mechanisms, so it was surprising to see that input had not been taken into account in the development of this proposal..." more

Executive Order and the New Date Privacy Rights of Non-US Citizens

"Last week, President Trump signed an executive order affecting the privacy rights of non-US citizens with respect to data residing in the US," Bruce Schneier writes in his security blog. more

Biden-Harris Administration Unveils National Cybersecurity Strategy

Today, the Biden Administration released the National Cybersecurity Strategy, which outlines the use of all available resources to protect the United States' security, safety, and economic prosperity. more

One Billion Smartphones in Use in the World, According to a Recent Study

Reported today on mobiThinking blog, the number of smartphones in use worldwide has now broken the 1 billion mark, according to Strategy Analytics. "That is a stunning landmark... It is an awful lot of smartphones. It is equivalent to one seventh of the global population and one sixth of mobile phone subscribers. But it is a lot less smartphones than some people have been reporting. Barely a day goes by without some ludicrous estimate of smartphone penetration." more

ICANN Website Breached, Passwords Obtained by an Unauthorized Person

Usernames/email addresses and encrypted passwords for profile accounts created on the ICANN.org public website have been obtained by an unauthorized person, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced Wednesday night. more

An Easier Way to Define Broadband

Our broadband policies always seem to lag the market. If and when the FCC seats the fifth Commissioner, it's expected that the agency will raise the definition of broadband from 25/3 Mbps to 100/20 Mbps. That change will have big repercussions in the market because it will mean that anybody that can't buy broadband speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps would not have broadband. That's how an official broadband definition works -- you either have broadband, or you don't. more

Xi Insists on China’s Right to Regulate Its Own Internet

Chinese President, Xi Jinping, in response to concerns about China's new Internet regulations and restrictions, says "rule of law also applies to the Internet, with the need to safeguard a country's sovereignty, security and development interests as relevant as in the real world." more

First .emarat Arabic Script Domain Name is Live!

The .emarat Arabic script Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) ccTLD for the United Arab Emirates has been entered into the DNS Root Zone and is therefore now resolving. This is a truly historic moment in the development of the Internet in the United Arab Emirates and the wider Arabic-speaking world as it removes the last hurdle preventing people without English-language skills from enjoying the full benefits that the Internet has to offer. more

In Response to Offensive Destruction of Attack Assets

It is certainly true that DDoS and hacking are on the rise; there have been a number of critical hacks in the last few years, including apparent attempts to alter the outcome of elections. The reaction has been a rising tide of fear, and an ever increasing desire to "do something." The something that seems to be emerging is, however, not necessarily the best possible "something." Specifically, governments are now talking about attempting to "wipe out" the equipment used in attacks. more