Surprise! National Security Controls on Drones are Harming National Security

Many government controls on the digital economy are justified by national security claims. Too often, these controls are motivated not by sound cybersecurity principles, but by an archaic economic nationalism. The prevailing idea in the U.S. Defense Department, for example, seems to be that something “made in the USA” is...

Yes, it’s a Ban – The Real Story Behind the New TikTok Law

The US Government is seeking new authorities to ban TikTok as a national security threat. If it sounds like deja vu, that’s because it is. In the year and three months since our study debunking the claims that TikTok is a national security threat, no new evidence or arguments have...

Public and Private Power in Internet Content Regulation: ICANN and Registry “Voluntary” Commitments

Is censorship something that only happens when state actors do it, or can private actors engage in it as well? That crucial Internet governance debate is taking place in two venues: The U.S. Supreme Court, which will rule on two state laws that try to regulate the way platforms moderate...

The Dutch in the grip of Internet nationalism

The Netherlands has a reputation for being a liberal, broad-minded place that is open to the world. Its scholars in Internet governance have emphasized the need for a globally recognized “public core” of the Internet. But apparently the virus of digital sovereignty has affected a significant portion of the Internet...

Here’s why 2023 wasn’t a Happy New Year

The year 2023 was a notable one in digital governance. A retrograde tendency by nation-states to pursue “digital sovereignty” peaked in Europe, China and the U.S., leading to numerous governmental barriers and restrictions on data, networks, computing devices and software applications. Meanwhile, breakthroughs in natural language AI applications convinced the...

Fragmenting the Web: The EU’s Identity Power Play

The Internet Governance Project has signed on to a Joint statement of scientists and NGOs in opposition to Article 45 of the European Union’s eIDAS (Electronic IDentification And trust Services) regulation. Security researchers, digital rights groups and industry all oppose the regulation, as it shifts decision-making authority over whom to...

Withdrawal from Christchurch Call Advisory Network (CCAN)

With this statement, Georgia Tech's Internet Governance Project is announcing its withdrawal from the Christchurch Call Advisory Network. The Christchurch Call was launched by New Zealand’s Prime Minister after a terrorist gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch, NZ on March 15, 2019. Its goal is to limit the dissemination of...

The Narrative: November 1, 2023

Dispatches from the evolving digital political economy AI Governance: Empty Gestures? The US government released an AI Executive Order October 31. The Halloween release comes after a year-long FUD campaign, backed partly by businessmen with a vested interest in AI, that frames AI as a frightening new technology that poses...