The Technical Community and Internet Governance: A Response to the Costerton-Curran-Wilson letter
As participants in – and long-time supporters of – the governance model of ICANN and the regional Internet registries, we were puzzled by a recent blog post by three leaders of these important institutions. Sally Costerton is the interim CEO…
The Narrative: August 15, 2023
Reports on the evolving digital political economy Oral arguments in Missouri v Biden appeal On August 10 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit listened to oral arguments related to an injunction that restricts the Biden administration from…
US Restricts Capital Flows to China…Sort of
A new Presidential Executive Order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to regulate U.S. investments in “countries of concern” (a nice euphemism that avoids calling China an “adversary”). The E.O. identifies three categories of “national security technologies” covered by the…
The Narrative: July 15, 2023
“Censorship” and Social Media A U.S. District Court has issued a landmark ruling that would block the federal government from encouraging or influencing the suppression of content by social media companies. Citing the First Amendment, the court issued a sweeping…
The Big Question Facing ICANN’s Contractual Governance Regime
ICANN never ceases to pose fascinating issues in global governance. At ICANN 77, held in Washington DC June 12 – 16, a dramatic debate took place about ICANN’s proper scope of authority. Some interest groups (mainly Registries and GAC) want…
The Basic Fallacy Underlying the AI Panic
For the past two months, we’ve seen a sudden burst of panic about the social implications of Artificial Intelligence. One cannot help but note, with a mix of resignation and amusement, that the loudest noises are coming from computer scientists…
The Narrative: VLOPs and VLOSErs; .NET Renewal; Stablecoins
1 May, 2023 Who’s a VLOP and who’s a VLOSER? Alibaba, Amazon, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Wikipedia are among the entities that have been designated “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs) by the European Commission. Google search and Bing have…
The Narrative: AI regulation frenzy; An assault on proof of work; & IMF puff piece
15 April, 2023 The AI Regulation Frenzy Technology panics now seem to go through fashion cycles. Last month it was Tiktok. The new trend in town is AI regulation. Would-be policy influencers are falling all over themselves to advance the…
Is a “Privacy Law” The Answer?
There’s an assumption making the rounds that a privacy law is the real answer to the data governance problems posed by Tiktok and other social media. The logic is pretty simple: Banning TikTok won’t keep us safe. A privacy law…
The Narrative: TikTok hearing; Chinese Drones; Stablecoins
March 31, 2023 The Tiktok hearing backfires As expected, Congress tried to turn its cross-examination of Tiktok CEO Shou Chew into a public stoning. Committee members (helped along by Meta lobbying) came in with their minds made up, refused to…