The Turn To Infrastructure In Internet Governance

This edited volume brings together experts from around the world to provide coverage and analysis of infrastructure's role in Internet governance, both now and in the future. Never in history have conflicts over Internet governance attracted such widespread attention. High-profile controversies include the disclosures about NSA surveillance by intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, controversy over a decision by the US government to relinquish its historic oversight of Internet names and numbers, and countless cybersecurity breaches involving unauthorized access to Internet users' personal data. Much of the Internet governance ecosystem—both technical architecture and coordinating institutions—is behind the scenes but increasingly carries significant public interest implications. An area once concealed in institutional and technological complexity is now rightly bracketed among other shared global issues—such as environmental protection and human rights—that have considerable global implications but are simply incongruous with national borders. This transformation into an era of global governance by Internet infrastructure presents a moment of opportunity for scholars to bring these politicized infrastructures to the foreground.

The question of governance of the Internet is increasing in significance. The United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society, held in two phases in 2003 and 2005, provoked heated debate, and the resultant meetings of the Internet Governance Forum that followed this have been the subject of growing public and media interest. Yet governance of the Internet is multifaceted, complex, and far from transparent, and there has been little written about the subject which is detailed, systematic, and non-polemical. This book focuses on the issues involved in the ongoing development of Internet governance, and the challenges associated with developing and applying governance structures at a global level based on bottom-up, consensus-seeking decision-making procedures, without direct foundation in a treaty frame-work. Leading academics and practitioners studying and working in the area of Internet governance explore such issues as how the engineering of infrastructure matters, how legitimacy is gained and retained by governance organizations, and whether elements of such organizations can provide a model for other organizations to emulate. They examine the tensions inherent in Internet governance, such as government control versus digital libertarianism; commercialism versus civil society ideals; interests of developed countries versus interests of developing countries. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of Information and Communications Technology, legal aspects of ICT, and Organization Studies, as well as legal practitioners, government bodies, NGOs, and others concerned with Internet governance.

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 book describes the Internet, and how Internet governance prevents it fragmenting into a 'Splinternet'. Four opposing ideologies about how data flows around the network have become prominent because they are (a) implemented by technical standards, and (b) backed by influential geopolitical entities. Each of these specifies an 'Internet', described in relation to its implementation by a specific geopolitical entity. The Four Internets of the title are the Silicon Valley Open Internet, developed by pioneers of the Internet in the 1960s, based on principles of openness and efficient dataflow; the Brussels Bourgeois Internet, exemplified by the European Union with a focus on human rights and legal administration; the DC Commercial Internet, exemplified by the Washington establishment and its focus on property rights and market solutions; and the Beijing Paternal Internet, exemplified by the Chinese government's control of Internet content. These Internets have to coexist if the Internet as a whole is to remain connected. The book also considers the weaponization of the hacking ethic as the Moscow Spoiler model, exemplified by Russia's campaigns of misinformation at scale; this is not a vision of the Internet, but is parasitic on the others. Each of these ideologies is illustrated by a specific policy question. Potential future directions of Internet development are considered, including the policy directions that India might take, and the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, smart cities, the Internet of Things, and social machines. A conclusion speculates on potential future Internets that may emerge alongside those described"--

A compelling argument that the Internet of things threatens human rights and security "Sobering and important."--Financial Times, "Best Books of 2020: Technology" The Internet has leapt from human-facing display screens into the material objects all around us. In this so-called Internet of things--connecting everything from cars to cardiac monitors to home appliances--there is no longer a meaningful distinction between physical and virtual worlds. Everything is connected. The social and economic benefits are tremendous, but there is a downside: an outage in cyberspace can result not only in loss of communication but also potentially in loss of life. Control of this infrastructure has become a proxy for political power, since countries can easily reach across borders to disrupt real-world systems. Laura DeNardis argues that the diffusion of the Internet into the physical world radically escalates governance concerns around privacy, discrimination, human safety, democracy, and national security, and she offers new cyber-policy solutions. In her discussion, she makes visible the sinews of power already embedded in our technology and explores how hidden technical governance arrangements will become the constitution of our future.

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.

The editor of this new Routledge title argues that our economic and social lives are now utterly dependent upon the successful coordination of the Internet. Moreover, as the Internet expands from its current form to an 'Internet of things', she suggests that its stability and security will soon be recognized as important as other global concerns, like battling terrorism and fighting climate change. Who controls the Internet? The question has profound implications for our access to knowledge, the pace of economic growth, and the protection of human rights, not least freedom of expression and the right to privacy. And the question's importance has been underscored in recent times by landmark events, including revelations about the actual and potential power of social-media companies, and the breathtaking extent of surveillance by intelligence and security organizations, such as the NSA in the United States and Britain's GCHQ. It is perhaps only in the last several years that issues about and around the governance of the Internet have entered the public consciousness, but serious academic and policy work dates back decades. And now there is a critical mass of scholarship that can usefully be collected under the rubric of 'Internet Governance'. Like the Internet itself, leading theorists and researchers in the field are distributed globally, and work in disciplines across the social sciences and humanities. Indeed, much of the relevant literature remains inaccessible or is highly specialized and compartmentalized, so that it is difficult for many of those who are interested in the subject to obtain an informed, balanced, and comprehensive overview. This new four-volume collection, published as part of Routledge's acclaimed series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, meets the need for a reference work to make sense of the subject's vast and dispersed literature and the continuing explosion in research output.