As participants in – and long-time supporters of – the governance model of ICANN and the regional Internet registries, we were puzzled by a recent blog post by three leaders of these important institutions. Sally Costerton is the interim CEO of ICANN, the organization that operates the IANA and develops...
Reports on the evolving digital political economy Oral arguments in Missouri v Biden appeal On August 10 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit listened to oral arguments related to an injunction that restricts the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms to request suppression of constitutionally...
A new Presidential Executive Order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to regulate U.S. investments in “countries of concern” (a nice euphemism that avoids calling China an "adversary"). The E.O. identifies three categories of “national security technologies” covered by the program: semiconductors and microelectronics; quantum information technologies; and artificial intelligence....
U.S. AI Regulation Looks a Lot Like Content Moderation On July 21, the White House announced it had secured Voluntary Commitments from several leading companies to help manage risks posed by artificial intelligence. The seven companies signing on are: Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The Biden administration...
On July 3rd 2023, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced it will be controlling Chinese exports of gallium and germanium effective August 1st, 2023. With this new licensing regime, China is responding to the US government's (USG) weaponizing of semiconductor patents by weaponizing its own hold on rare elements and minerals....
“Censorship” and Social Media A U.S. District Court has issued a landmark ruling that would block the federal government from encouraging or influencing the suppression of content by social media companies. Citing the First Amendment, the court issued a sweeping injunction that would stop agencies such as the White House,...
The 118th Congress is set on addressing the regulatory vacuum around digital assets. Its April 19 inaugural session on “payment stablecoins” was covered in part 1 of this series, which also explained what stablecoins are and their implications for the larger macroeconomic system. With the debt ceiling controversy behind us...
ICANN never ceases to pose fascinating issues in global governance. At ICANN 77, held in Washington DC June 12 – 16, a dramatic debate took place about ICANN’s proper scope of authority. Some interest groups (mainly Registries and GAC) want ICANN to be empowered to enforce compliance with Registry Voluntary...
On March 9th a battle between subcommittee members in the U.S. Congress ensued during the Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the Twitter Files. The Twitter Files show that multiple government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, and the...
"Digital" is often coupled with "transformation," and one area where its transformative powers are increasingly manifest is in finance and money. In this ongoing series, we will report on the US Congress's efforts to formulate digital assets policy. We use the term "digital assets" rather than digital money because it...
“In characteristically rigorous fashion, Mueller’s outstanding book punctures the alarmist myth of Internet fragmentation and helps us to understand what is really at stake as nations and other groups vie for power over the Internet.”
