As this gets published we are about 18 hours away from TikTok going dark. From the standpoint of global Internet and data governance, the impending ban raises fascinating questions. If we look closely at how the US sought to ban a platform, and who pushed for it, and whether a...
Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling upholding the TikTok ban. The Justices clearly did not understand the full implications of this decision, and admitted as much in the opening paragraphs of the decision: “...we are conscious that the cases before us involve new technologies with transformative...
A conference devoted to challenging “digital authoritarianism” is something that IGP can certainly get behind. But what is digital authoritarianism, and was it really being challenged in Italy on October 28 and 29? At the meeting “Decrypting Digital Authoritarianism: How the Use of the Internet Can Threaten Democracy and Human...
In the digital landscape of Iran, citizens find themselves trapped between a hammer and an anvil—on one side, external sanctions crush their access to the global digital economy, while on the other, their own government’s policies lock them into a controlled cyberspace. This isn’t just about a fear of information...
As smartphone adoption surges and wireless broadband becomes increasingly accessible, we're witnessing a major shift in the digital landscape. Internet-based platforms are rapidly overtaking traditional services, from Facebook and WhatsApp challenging conventional SMS and voice calls to streaming giants like Netflix disrupting traditional TV broadcasting. This shift is especially pronounced...
Think20 (T20) is an official Engagement Group of the Group of 20 (G20). It serves as an “idea bank” for the G20 by bringing together think tanks and high-level experts to discuss policy issues relevant to the G20. T20 recommendations are synthesized into policy briefs and presented to G20 working...
April 16, the Japanese government took action against LINE, the most popular messaging app in Japan, following a hacking incident in 2023 that compromised the data of 510,000 users. They issued unusual administrative guidance to LineYahoo, the company operating LINE in Japan, demanding a shareholder restructuring. This guidance called for...
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...
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...
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...
“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.”
