Wow, has 2018 flown by! Hopefully, you’re in a restful and reflective holiday mood. We want to look back at the top developments in Internet governance we covered, and offer some thoughts on issues that are heating up and what will be happening in the coming year.

In the past year:

  • Domain name holders’ private registration data was finally redacted and protected by ICANN. We will continue our advocacy to keep it like that
  • IGP’s educational efforts were expanded to support the curriculum design of the Middle East School on Internet Governance
  • Bright students and scholars joined IGP to undertake research on Internet governance. Drop us a line if you want to undertake research on Internet governance at IGP
  • We kicked off our Digital Free Trade project last year and made it the focus of several events and our annual workshop. We quickly realized we were in an uphill battle as the “Techlash” against global platforms took place and cyber-nationalist laws and policies took hold in many countries. A special issue on cyber nationalism and digital trade will be published next month by Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance
  • We strengthened and developed our work on cyber attack attribution. Watch this site for further developments
  • We still believe discussing cyber norms endlessly with soft commitments from the states will not preserve Internet security
  • We warned against multilateralization of Internet governance processes at the United Nations
  • IGP explored IPv6 and economic incentives for its deployment in 2018. Stay tuned for the final report, to be published very soon

In 2019 we will:

  • Discuss and develop our research on cyber attack attribution
  • Continue working on digital free trade
  • Work closely with the civil society for a coordinated approach in Internet governance
  • Monitor States actions that can affect the multistakeholder Internet governance
  • Work with more students and IGP fellows
  • And continue our usual advocacy at the domain name space and ICANN

We wish for a transnational Internet governance in 2019 and we will work toward that goal, we will continue to resist Internet nationalism, and we will work hard to keep the Internet global, open and free from the vices of controlling states.