Governing The Internet

Over the past thirty years, the internet has transformed virtually every area of human activity, social and economic. The bulk of these changes have been positive, allowing people to work, imagine and connect with each other in new ways. The boost to economic activity has been enormous. But along with the benefits have come new risks. The result is a rich set of policy challenges for governments. Paul Fletcher is Australia's Minister for Communications and has worked on internet policy issues for twenty-five years. In Governing in the Age of the Internet, he outlines the key challenges the internet has posed for governments as they seek to preserve their sovereignty, protect their citizens from harm, and regulate neutrally between traditional and online business models. Yes, the internet has changed everything--and that goes for governing, too.

This book examines the changes in the governance of human expression as a result of the development of the Internet. It tells the story of the emergence of a global regime that almost completely lacks institutions, and develops a concept of ‘expression governance’ that focusses on the governance practices of key actors in Europe and North America. The book illuminates the increased disciplinary capacity of the Internet infrastructure that has become apparent to the public following Edward Snowden’s leaks in 2013, and provides a theoretical frame within which such changes can be understood. It argues that the Internet has developed a ‘global default’ of permissible speech that exists pervasively across the globe but beyond the control of any one actor. It then demonstrates why the emergence of such a ‘global default’ of speech is crucial to global conflict in the international relations of the Internet. The book concludes with an elaboration of the regulatory practices and theatrical performances that enable a global regime as well as the three key narratives that are embedded within it.

A groundbreaking study of one of the most crucial yet least understood issues of the twenty-first century: the governance of the Internet and its content

The Internet is now a key part of everyday life across the developed world, and growing rapidly across developing countries. This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research on Internet governance, written by the leading scholars in the field. With an international focus, it features contributions from lawyers, economists and political scientists across North America, Europe and Australia. They adopt a broad multidisciplinary perspective, taking in law, economics, political science, international relations, and communications studies. Thought-provoking chapters cover topics such as ICANN, the Internet Governance Forum, grassroots activism, innovation, human rights, privacy in social networks, and network neutrality. Being a forward-looking guide for the next decade, this Research Handbook will strongly appeal to scholars and graduate students in the social sciences studying and researching Internet governance, political scientists, economists, lawyers and computer scientists working on governance issues, as well as regulators and policymakers responsible for Internet governance in national governments and intergovernmental organisations.

The volume explores the consequences of recent events in global Internet policy and possible ways forward following the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12). It offers expert views on transformations in governance, the future of multistakeholderism and the salience of cybersecurity. Based on the varied backgrounds of the contributors, the book provides an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on international relations, international law and communication studies. It addresses not only researchers interested in the evolution of new forms of transnational networked governance, but also practitioners who wish to get a scholarly reflection on current regulatory developments. It notably provides firsthand accounts on the role of the WCIT-12 in the future of Internet governance.

This volume explores the many complex issues and challenges that confront governments, technocrats, business people and others as they try to create and implement rules for a truly global interoperable Internet.

The book addresses representation of the public interest in Internet standard developing organisations (SDOs). Much of the existing literature on Internet governance focuses on international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The literature covering standard developing organisations has to date focused on organisational aspects. This book breaks new ground with investigation of standard development within SDO fora. Case studies centre on standards relating to privacy and security, mobile communications, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and copyright. The book lifts the lid on internet standard setting with detailed insight into a world which, although highly technical, very much affects the way in which citizens live and work on a daily basis. In doing this it adds significantly to the trajectory of research on Internet standards and SDOs that explore the relationship between politics and protocols. The analysis contributes to academic debates on democracy and the internet, global self-regulation and civil society, and international decision-making processes in unstructured environments. The book advances work on the Multiple Streams Framework (MS) by applying it to decision-making in non-state environments, namely SDOs which have long been dominated by private actors. The book is aimed at academic audiences in political science, computer science communications and science and technology studies as well as representatives from civil society, the civil service, government, engineers and experts working within SDO fora. It will also be accessible to students at the postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

Informed by theories of international relations, this book assesses global political conflicts over cyberspace. It also analyzes the unique governance challenges that the Internet presents, both in terms of technical problems and control over content. The Internet is a resource of unparalleled importance to all countries and societies, but the current decentralized system of Internet governance is being challenged by some governments that seek to assert sovereign control over the technology. The political battles over governing the Internet-ones that are coming and conflicts that have already started-have far-reaching implications. This book analyzes the shifting nature of Internet governance as it affects timely and significant issues including Internet freedom, privacy, and security, as well as individual and corporate rights. Controlling Cyberspace: The Politics of Internet Governance and Regulation covers a broad range of issues related to Internet governance, presenting a technical description of how the Internet works, an overview of the Internet governance ecosystem from its earliest days to the present, an examination of the roles of the United Nations and other international and regional organizations in Internet governance, and a discussion of Internet governance in relation to specific national and international policies and debates. Readers will consider if access to the Internet is a human right and if the right to freedom of expression applies equally to the exchange of information online. The book also addresses how the digital divide between those in developed countries and the approximately 5 billion people who do not have access to the Internet access affects the issue of Internet governance, and it identifies the challenges involved in protecting online privacy in light of government and corporate control of information.