U.S., Japan, So Korea MoUs on Content Governance
On December 6th, the United States and Japan formalized their commitment to collaboratively address foreign information manipulation by signing a memorandum of cooperation. The Department of State further disclosed that a similar memorandum with the same objectives is imminent with…
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…
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…
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…
Twitter Files: A blueprint of Internet Governance without Section 230.
On March 9th a battle between subcommittee members in the U.S. Congress ensued during the Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the Twitter Files. The Twitter Files show that multiple government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of…
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…
The Narrative: Lots of stuff happening!
September 30, 2022 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is having its Plenipotentiary meeting in Bucharest. These four-year events are always redolent with claims that Russia and China will somehow use the ITU to “take over the internet”…
The Narrative: US Psyops caught by US platforms; Paper trails vs E2EE; Another cloud over TikTok
September 1, 2022 Impartiality in Content Moderation (!) Post-2016 hysteria about “information warfare” – which should be labeled foreign influence operations (IO) – created serious concerns that U.S.-based social media platforms would collaborate with the U.S. government to censor foreign…
Regulation of Algorithmic Regulation Begins
A Chinese law that went into effect six months ago required online service providers to file details of the algorithms they use with China’s centralized regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). In mid-August, CAC released a list of 30…
The Narrative: Crisis at Afrinic; Apple breaks privacy; GIFCT participation
Crisis at AFRINIC The African Network Information Centre (Afrinic), the African regional Internet registry (RIR) for IP addresses, has had its bank accounts frozen by court order, crippling its operations. The Supreme Court of Mauritius ordered the RIR’s $50 million…