The Narrative: European DNS policy, Apple & competition, Ukrainian cyber incidents, new IGP paper

Europe’s industrial policy for recursive DNS The European Commission’s 2020 Data Strategy is intended “to make the EU a leader in a data-driven society [by] creating a single market for data.” As part of its misguided “digital sovereignty” effort, the plan budgeted an initial 14 million Euro for a recursive...

The Narrative: IGF16 still on; Insurers confront cyber-attribution; India & cryptocurrency

Amid Covid concerns, IGF meets in Poland As of this moment, the UN Internet Governance Forum will still hold a hybrid meeting in Katowice, Poland. The hosts made an announcement affirming that "it goes ahead with the physical meeting as planned as it has taken all necessary precautions to make...

The Narrative: Clashing Cybersecurity Regulations, Monopoly Fines

November 15, 2021 U.S. Incident Reporting Mandate Moves to the NDAA - With a Notable Exception The Cyber Incident Reporting Act of 2021 is a Senate bill that attempts to centralize critical infrastructure incident data in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). It is facing pushback from the private sector....

The Narrative: Meta-morphosis, data enclosure effects, 5G sanctions, global encryption day, Pegasus probe

November 1, 2021 Facebook tries to change the subject After becoming the scapegoat of choice for all of society’s ills, from the “death of democracy” to teenage girls’ social comparisons to amplifying hate speech, Mark Zuckerberg announced a change to the company’s name and a shift in its focus. While...

The Narrative: Facebook and ISOC do not get the Nobel Peace Prize

October 15, 2021 Free expression advocates win Nobel Peace Prize The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia. Announcing the award, The Nobel Committee clarified that the two working reporters were chosen for the award because they represent “a...

CCP Continues to Seal Off Its Digital Economy

The Chinese Communist Party's focus on building a governance regime for cyberspace has resulted in the rapid introduction of several new laws and regulations on data governance, cybersecurity, the digital economy, and online media content. The targeting of the digital sector with so many new restrictions, laws and regulations is...

Comparative Analysis of Platform Governance in the U.S. and China

IGP’s conference on “Comparative Analysis of Platform Governance in the U.S. and China” brought together 21 papers and 30 scholars and policy influencers for three days of intensive (bilingual) discussion. Digital platforms and the data they generate are now the focus of business, government and civil society all over the...

The Narrative: TikTok still worries the US, US-China conference nears, Bitcoin finds a home, Canada goes nuts

Biden didn’t “revoke” the TikTok ban President Biden issued an executive order June 9 on “Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries.” The media widely reported it as “rescinding” or “revoking” two Trump executive orders that banned new downloads of WeChat and TikTok. But that framing is wildly inaccurate. First,...

The Narrative (June 03, 2021): Bitcoin and ransomware; IGP’s data enclosure research; WhatsApp backs down on privacy update 

Ransomware fuels talk of Bitcoin ban, Russia and the US clash over YouTube, WhatsApp backtracks on enforcing its new privacy policy, and IGP presents at the PLSC for the first time. Bitcoin and Ransomware Successful, highly disruptive ransomware attacks are prompting calls to ban Bitcoin or find ways to crack...