At the International Studies Association convention in San Francisco, at an especially interesting panel on cybersecurity, we were privileged to hear excerpts from a forthcoming book by Michael Warner, Historian for the United States Cyber Command, and John Childress. Warner examined the last 20 years of U.S. Russia relationships in...
Should domain name registrars have the right to cancel a domain because they don’t like the content of the website it supports? How many registrars’ terms of service contracts give them this right and how many don’t? Should ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement ensure registrar neutrality, or is competition sufficient to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6t8dkRCVVQ&t=21s Governmental and social pressure have led YouTube to come up with algorithms to push down videos that YouTube suspects to be "fake news" or "conspiracy theories." An article in the Guardian blaming YouTube for "promoting" a video claiming that the Las Vegas shooting was a hoax shows the kind...
Spain is undergoing a traumatic crackdown on freedom of expression, as part of a larger political convulsion over the Catalan province’s attempt to hold a binding referendum on independence. As one resident tweeted: Webs R closed or blocked. Media are summoned not 2 "inform" about referendum. Anybody expressing support [for...
Recently, the Internet Association, a trade group for online service providers, introduced a praiseworthy idea into the NAFTA re-negotiation. It asked for the revised trade agreement to include a principle that online platform providers should be immunized from liability for the content that some of their users post. As the...
The Internet governance implications of Charlottesville are becoming clearer. When a white supremacist protest resulted in the murder of Helen Heyer, the Daily Stormer published repugnant, hate-filled content about her on its website. This provoked numerous Internet service providers (domain name registrars, DNS proxy services, a DDoS mitigation service and...
In this month's VoM, we highlight Dave Clark's recent presentation, concerning the role of the IETF in Internet protocols and human rights, made to the plenary at IETF 98 in Chicago. Clark reflects on the recent efforts proposing guidelines for human rights considerations in IETF standards work. He recalls earlier...
The DNC hack has led to some inflamed rhetoric by the American foreign policy establishment and mainstream journalists. Cold War-type accusations about the malign influence of the Russians have been revived, as Russia is accused of “manipulating” US elections. There are constant references to information warfare between the U.S. and...
As part of the ICANN accountability reforms, civil society activists pushed to gain a commitment from the corporation to respect fundamental human rights. This appeared to be a promising part of the ICANN reforms. IGP has always recognized that ICANN’s regulations on domain name users and registries can affect freedom...
The European Commission recently concluded its “EU Internet Forum,” a code of conduct for regulating speech on the internet. The code was negotiated among law enforcement agencies and the major global social media providers. The Code of Conduct targets terrorist recruiting and so-called ‘hate speech.’ It encouraged the platform providers...
“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.”
