Mandated Interoperability/ Cybersecurity: The Fateful Tradeoff Underlying the Crowdstrike Incident

We’ve learned a lot in the last ten days about the software update from Crowdstrike that crashed approximately 8.5 million Windows-based PCs. In retrospect, 8.5 million is a fairly small portion of the global Windows environment, 7 or 8% (according to MSFT less than 1% of Windows machines were impacted),...

The U.S. FCC’s intrusion into routing security: A comment

The Internet Governance Project (IGP) has submitted comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Matter of Reporting on Border Gateway Protocol Risk Mitigation Progress, FCC 24-146 and Secure Internet Routing, FCC-24-62. Internet routing was for many years left network operators to...

The Power to Govern Ourselves: (Multi)Stakeholders, States and Collective Action

The following is the text of the Keynote speech delivered at the GigArts 2024 conference, The Hague, Netherlands, June 4, 2024.  We now have almost 30 years of experience with so-called multistakeholder governance. Sometimes it’s called the multistakeholder model. Sometimes it’s the “multistakeholder approach.” Sometimes, it’s an “ism,” like communism...

The Disappointing NETMundial+10

The NETMundial 10th anniversary event was held April 23 and 24 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. As we wrote earlier, “Netmundial was a transformative moment in global internet governance. Inspired by the Snowden revelations, and amplified by the U.S. government’s announcement that it would relinquish its control of ICANN and the DNS root,”...

The Traditional Media’s Role in Sculpting “Truth”: the Originator Profile and Unfair Election Reports

As the global community grapples with various mis/disinformation laws, regulatory frameworks, community standards, and other governance efforts put forward by states, social media companies, and academia, the pivotal role of traditional media and journalists often slips under the radar. The article discusses information integrity efforts in East Asia, including digital...

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...

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: October 16, 2023

Dispatches from the evolving digital political economy NETmundial's 10th Anniversary: Inspiration or Nostalgia? At the Kyoto Internet Governance Forum, we learned that Brazil's CGI is thinking about holding an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the NETmundial event in April 2014. Netmundial was a transformative moment in global internet...