Internet Governance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milton Mueller
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Critical Infrastructure ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Internet Protocols

The internet is a set of software instructions (known as “protocols”) capable of transmitting data over networks. These protocols were designed to facilitate the movement of data across independently managed networks and different physical media, and not to survive a nuclear war as the popular myth suggests. The use of the internet protocols gives rise to technical, legal, regulatory, and policy problems that become the main concern of internet governance. Because the internet is a key component of the infrastructure for a growing digital economy, internet governance has turned into an increasingly high-stakes arena for political activity. The world’s convergence on the internet protocols for computer communications, coupled with the proliferation of a variety of increasingly inexpensive digital devices that can be networked, has created a new set of geopolitical issues around information and communication technologies. These problems are intertwined with a broader set of public policy issues such as freedom of expression, privacy, transnational crime, the security of states and critical infrastructure, intellectual property, trade, and economic regulation. Political scientists and International Relations scholars have been slow to attack these problems, in part due to the difficulty of recognizing governance issues when they are embedded in a highly technological context. Internet governance is closely related to, and has evolved out of, debates over digital convergence, telecommunications policy, and media regulation.

The Emerging Field of Internet Governance

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura DeNardis
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Net Neutrality ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Policy Arenas

This chapter demonstrates the significance of the emerging field of Internet governance, highlighting issues over standards, names and numbers, and net neutrality, which are unfolding in a variety of contexts around the world, including the Internet Governance Forum. It describes how technology could bias outcomes across policy arenas, such as privacy or freedom of expression. Internet governance generally refers to policy and technical coordination issues related to the exchange of information over the Internet. Governance has had immediate implications for freedom of expression online. Despite the significant public interest implications, Internet governance is largely hidden from public view. A crucial role of Internet governance research is to evaluate the implications of the tension between forces of openness and forces of enclosure, examine the implications of the privatisation of governance, and bring to public light the key issues at stake at the intersection of technical expediency and the public interest.

scholarly journals The Internet, Social Media Gagging and Participatory Democracy in the Horn of Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damilola Adegoke
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Text Book ◽  
Internet Service

Governments across the globe seek opportunities at regular intervals to exercise state-power and control over aspects of society. This is not limited to dictatorships and centralized party states alone; the beginning of the internet age saw the conflicts over who has rights over the control of the internets. A typical example is the case between the French governments and Yahoo over the former’s request for Yahoo to ban Nazi’s memorabilia merchant sites from French cyberspace. The judicial decision favours the position of the French government thereby setting precedence for internet governance.[1]It is one of the defining moments for the status of internet governance and cyber territoriality. Who has a right over the internet? Should states law be allowed to determine behaviours online? Who is to exercise juridical power in case of infractions? These questions have been addressed at different for a with the odds favouring states for obvious reasons; part of which include the fact that infrastructure for the transmission and distribution of internet access are domiciled in states and these provide opportunities for governments to wield their power against Internet Service Providers who might want to exercise independent agencies. Countries in the Horn of Africa are text-book cases of government seeking absolute censorship of citizens’ communication thereby infringing upon the rights of freedom of expression. This practice of leadership section discusses social media gagging and participatory democracy in the Horn of Africa.   [1]Jack Goldsmith  and Tim Wu, Who controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3-6.

Using the Web in the democratic process. The Web-orchestrated ‘Stop the Overlay’ cyber-campaign

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM H. DUTTON ◽  
WAN-YING LIN
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Regulatory Change ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Ecology Of Games ◽  
The Web

In the 1996 US Presidential elections, new information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet and World Wide Web (Web), began to play a visible role in US campaigns and elections, and its role has expanded to shape the political process more generally. Case studies have shown how the Web, for example, can facilitate the rapid exchange of information that is essential to coordinating political activity. By virtue of reducing the costs of communication, it has become accessible to grassroots organisations without the resources to mount more traditional media campaigns. This study looks in-depth at one campaign – Stop the Overlay – which employed the Internet and Web to effect public policy and regulatory change locally, but with implications for California and the US. Our study led us to employ the framework of an ecology of games to discuss the interplay among the separate but interdependent decisions and games that shaped the campaign. The case shows how this Web-orchestrated campaign was one element that reconfigured the ecology of games in ways that influenced policy decisions. It accomplished this not only by altering the costs of communication, but by reshaping access and thereby changing the networks of communication among political actors.

scholarly journals Problems and challenges of internet governance at the international level

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-258
Author(s):  
Dejan Vuletic ◽  
Branislav Djordjevic
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
National Interests ◽  
National Organizations ◽  
The Face ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Basic Hypothesis

The activities of the United Nations, as the most important international organization, as well as the efforts of certain regional and national organizations, are discussed in this article on the subject of Internet governance. The article pays special attention to the ?internet of things,? the increasing use of which causes the emergence of new, dangerous, and serious threats, further complicating the problem of Internet governance. The stated subject of the research is directly related to the aim of the paper, which is to present and analyse the activities of various entities, international, regional and national institutions and organizations, as well as leading states, primarily the United States and Russia, and documents that attempt to regulate activities in cyberspace. The basic hypothesis is that opposing national interests prevent international bodies, particularly the United Nations, from reaching a consensus on the fundamental principles of Internet governance, resulting in insecurity in the face of increasingly frequent, diverse, and serious threats to the Internet and cyberspace in general. Based on the arguments presented in the paper, there have been numerous attempts to regulate Internet governance that have not materialized in concrete decisions implemented in national legislation and practice. Due to the growing dependence on information and communication technologies, the problem of the non-existence of regulations in this area makes the information society even more vulnerable.

The Internet and SMEs in Sub-Saharan African Countries

2011 ◽  
pp. 2183-2188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Princely Ifinedo
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Global Network ◽  
The Internet ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Internet Protocols ◽  
The World ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Sub Saharan

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers using multiple Internet protocols (IP). Increasingly, it is being used to enhance business operation by both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large organizations around the world (Bunker and MacGregor, 2002; Turban, Lee, King, & Chung, Lee, J., King, D. & Chung 2004). One reason is that the Internet, when used to facilitate e-commerce and e-business, offers several benefits for the adopting organizations (Walczuch, den Braven, & Lundgren, 2000; Turban, et al, 2004). Such benefits include the following: 1) reducing distance barrier, 2) the development of new products and services, 3) opening direct links between customer and suppliers, and 4) enhancing communication efficiency. Our study of the relevant literature reveals that the diffusion of the Internet among businesses in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), including SMEs, is the lowest in the world at around 2% (ITU, 2005). A recent report shows that the whole of Africa has only 1% of the total international Internet bandwidth (UNCTAD, 2005). Thus, it is to be expected that businesses in the region with such poor connectivity and use will be unable to fully reap the benefits of the technology. Against such unfavorable situations, it would seem reasonable for research efforts to uncover why such unfavorable conditions prevail in the region. Sadly, very few studies exist that have investigated such issues. Little is known about the perceptions of the Internet or the factors inhibiting its spread among SMEs in SSA. To fill this gap in research, this article aims at adding to knowledge by presenting a summary of the findings of a preliminary study designed to investigate the perceptions of the Internet and the sorts of barriers facing SMEs in SSA desiring to adopt Internet in their operations or for commerce. The study used SMEs in Nigeria, a Sub-Saharan African country. The country was chosen for illustration proposes as it is the most populous country in Africa and has favorable indicators for the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) compared to other SSA countries (Ifinedo, 2005). Importantly, researchers, for example, Ojukwu (2006) have discussed use of ICT among Nigerian SMEs and it is hoped that this present effort will complement similar research efforts.

The Social-Media Challenge to Internet Governance

2019 ◽  
pp. 389-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura DeNardis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
New Challenges

Just as Internet governance has come to be seen as inherently global, for example in supporting cybersecurity (Creese et al., Chapter 9, this volume), there are forces pulling in opposite directions, such as efforts to localize data, and global platforms privatizing governance within business and industry (Casilli and Posada, Chapter 17, this volume). Laura DeNardis focuses on the ways in which social-media platforms are creating new challenges to Internet governance. What will this mean for the privacy of personal data and freedom of expression? Who should regulate and govern the Internet as well as privacy and expression in the digital age?

The Internet and SMEs in Sub-Saharan African Countries

2011 ◽  
pp. 1170-1177
Author(s):  
Princely Ifinedo
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Global Network ◽  
The Internet ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Internet Protocols ◽  
The World ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Sub Saharan

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers using multiple Internet protocols (IP). Increasingly, it is being used to enhance business operation by both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large organizations around the world (Bunker and MacGregor, 2002; Turban, Lee, King, & Chung, Lee, J., King, D. & Chung 2004). One reason is that the Internet, when used to facilitate e-commerce and e-business, offers several benefits for the adopting organizations (Walczuch, den Braven, & Lundgren, 2000; Turban, et al, 2004). Such benefits include the following: 1) reducing distance barrier, 2) the development of new products and services, 3) opening direct links between customer and suppliers, and 4) enhancing communication efficiency. Our study of the relevant literature reveals that the diffusion of the Internet among businesses in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), including SMEs, is the lowest in the world at around 2% (ITU, 2005). A recent report shows that the whole of Africa has only 1% of the total international Internet bandwidth (UNCTAD, 2005). Thus, it is to be expected that businesses in the region with such poor connectivity and use will be unable to fully reap the benefits of the technology. Against such unfavorable situations, it would seem reasonable for research efforts to uncover why such unfavorable conditions prevail in the region. Sadly, very few studies exist that have investigated such issues. Little is known about the perceptions of the Internet or the factors inhibiting its spread among SMEs in SSA. To fill this gap in research, this article aims at adding to knowledge by presenting a summary of the findings of a preliminary study designed to investigate the perceptions of the Internet and the sorts of barriers facing SMEs in SSA desiring to adopt Internet in their operations or for commerce. The study used SMEs in Nigeria, a Sub-Saharan African country. The country was chosen for illustration proposes as it is the most populous country in Africa and has favorable indicators for the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) compared to other SSA countries (Ifinedo, 2005). Importantly, researchers, for example, Ojukwu (2006) have discussed use of ICT among Nigerian SMEs and it is hoped that this present effort will complement similar research efforts.

THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN INTERNET GOVERNANCE. PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
N. S. FILATOV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The State ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
State Management ◽  
Governance Model ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Development Goals

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of the Internet governance model with the participation of stakeholders and its impact on business in regions and countries, as well as to the discussion of sustainable development goals related to Internet governance. Examples of how enterprises suffer from state management methods in this area are presented.

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