Why a TikTok Divestiture Never Happened
As this gets published we are about 18 hours away from TikTok going dark. From the standpoint of global Internet and data governance, the impending ban raises fascinating questions. If we look closely at how the US sought to ban…
The debate over “multistakeholderism”
A CircleID post by Alexander Klimburg takes aim at my article, “The Power to Govern Ourselves,” delivered at the Gig-Arts conference in June. That speech, avaiable here on the blog, argued that “Multistakeholder does not describe a governance model. It…
Authoritarianism Goes Digital: The EUI Conference
A conference devoted to challenging “digital authoritarianism” is something that IGP can certainly get behind. But what is digital authoritarianism, and was it really being challenged in Italy on October 28 and 29? At the meeting “Decrypting Digital Authoritarianism: How…
Caught in the Crossfire: The Impact of Sanctions on Iranian Internet Users
In the digital landscape of Iran, citizens find themselves trapped between a hammer and an anvil—on one side, external sanctions crush their access to the global digital economy, while on the other, their own government’s policies lock them into a…
Surprise! National Security Controls on Drones are Harming National Security
Many government controls on the digital economy are justified by national security claims. Too often, these controls are motivated not by sound cybersecurity principles, but by an archaic economic nationalism. The prevailing idea in the U.S. Defense Department, for example,…
Yes, it’s a Ban – The Real Story Behind the New TikTok Law
The US Government is seeking new authorities to ban TikTok as a national security threat. If it sounds like deja vu, that’s because it is. In the year and three months since our study debunking the claims that TikTok is…
The Dutch in the grip of Internet nationalism
The Netherlands has a reputation for being a liberal, broad-minded place that is open to the world. Its scholars in Internet governance have emphasized the need for a globally recognized “public core” of the Internet. But apparently the virus of…
Here’s why 2023 wasn’t a Happy New Year
The year 2023 was a notable one in digital governance. A retrograde tendency by nation-states to pursue “digital sovereignty” peaked in Europe, China and the U.S., leading to numerous governmental barriers and restrictions on data, networks, computing devices and software…
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…
From Black to White: Dissecting Propaganda in Nuclear Emergencies, Finding Governance Solutions?
Disinformation during emergencies (DiE) can critically undermine government efforts to mitigate socioeconomic harm and damage the relationship between the state and citizens. With the production of nuclear power growing in multiple countries and widespread concern over generative-AI-fueled disinformation online, we…