China fines Ali Baba for competing vigorously; platform governance becomes a thing; reports of a digital currency war are greatly exaggerated; NSA’s “we need visibility” thesis is contested. From China, with love China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has fined Ali Baba 18.228 billion yuan (about 2.79 billion U.S. dollars)...
The impact of social media on political communication remains a top concern worldwide. A request for comment on disinformation policy has been issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression. Biden's incoming Director of National Intelligence is being pushed to support mandatory cybersecurity information sharing by the private...
This time we analyze the SolarWinds intrusion and challenge some narratives being spun around it. We also look at Europe’s whirlwind of legislative activity in the EU around cybersecurity and the digital economy. And oh, happy New Year. It’s an idiot (solar) wind... The biggest event shaping Internet governance discussions...
Many large American businesses – notably, Facebook and the intellectual property interests – are strongly interested in retaining free and unrestricted access to domain name registrants’ personal information (known as Whois data). As it became clear that ICANN’s multistakeholder process would restrict that access to comply with Europe's privacy regulation,...
Under Chairman Ajit Pai, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission made itself a tool of the Trump administration's assault on economic relations with China. One part of this was an attempt to expel China Telecom (Americas) from the U.S. market. The FCC issued an order to China Telecom of the Americas (CTA)...
The Narrative is a twice-monthly survey of key developments in Internet governance. This time we explain how the American National Defense Authorization Act contains some highly undesirable internet governance measures and survey the geopolitics of 5G. The Militarization of Everything The American National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes nearly $750...
As we have noted for the past two years, Internet governance (IG) is one of the focal points of US-China tensions. But IG is but one part of the economic, social and political relationships among the world's two biggest economies. On November 16, a report addressing the bigger picture, “Meeting...
This is the text of the keynote speech delivered by Milton Mueller at the 2020 conference of the Hague Program for Cyber Norms of Leiden University. Special thanks to Prof. Dennis Broeders for the invitation. A recording of the talk, which includes slides and many good follow up questions, is...
ICANN’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) has published a useful paper on the so-called “New IP” coined by Huawei technologists. So-called New IP's link to Huawei is a guarantee, in the current geopolitical environment, that it will be politicized. The “ITU is taking over the Internet” narrative that...
This workshop (WS#81) addresses the Internet governance implications of the widening split between the United States and China. Involving experts and government representatives from the U.S., China, Europe, India and South Africa, it seeks answers to the following policy questions about the intensifying conflict between the US and China: Does...
“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.”
