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…
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: 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…
The Narrative: Anti-Section 230 bill advances; ICANN’s judicial branch
February 22, 2022 EARN IT Act moves forward The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a new version of the highly controversial Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT Act). First introduced in March 2020, EARN IT…
The Narrative: ICANN, ICANN and more ICANN
1 January, 2022 Happy New Year! To start off 2022 we look back – and forward – at the granddaddy of Internet governance issues, domain names. TLDs go Hippety Hop ICANN is embroiled in a controversy about approving the transfer…
The IG Narrative: Platforms, Payments and Privacy
September 16, 2021 App Stores’ Market Power Challenged Legal and regulatory actions are beginning to target the economic leverage of Apple’s and Google’s mobile app stores, but the cases make it clear that the conflict is primarily among competing suppliers…
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…
The Narrative: U.S. Congress “unites” against the platforms; Google (and the European Union) end cookies’ death sentence; Senegal’s data nationalism; China’s digital mercantilism
June 30, 2021 The USG goes after the platforms The attitudinal backlash against digital platforms (Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter) has quickly been translated into public policy. The Biden Administration has appointed Lina Kahn, an Ivy League law professor…