internet governance

Bilingual

RFC 8890 – The Internet is for End Users (2020)
2 months ago
- RFC 8890 argues that IETF decisions should prioritize end users over other stakeholders.
- The IETF has implicit political impact despite focusing on technical details, as protocol designs can empower or disempower different groups.
- Examples like DNS-over-HTTPS and Encrypted Client Hello show how IETF decisions have real-world political and social consequences.
- The IETF should explicitly acknowledge its soft power and consult broader stakeholders, including policymakers and end users.
- Principles like the end-to-end principle and RFC 7258 guide IETF decisions, but more work is needed to embed end-user focus.
- The IETF is accountable to the Internet’s health and legitimacy, not to any single government or corporation.
- Technologists must engage with non-technical perspectives to ensure protocols benefit end users globally, avoiding fragmentation.
Who Controls the Internet? And should they? - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- Governments like China, Russia, the UK, and the US attempt to control the internet through censorship, legislation, or sanctions, but with varying effectiveness and often limited due process.
- Big tech companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) operate opaque 'kangaroo courts' that arbitrarily block content or services without transparent appeal processes, shifting control away from accountable institutions.
- Increased encryption and privacy measures make it harder for less sophisticated governments to control the internet, but also empower tech firms to hide their actions from users and regulators.
- The speaker warns that unaccountable mega firms are gaining more control over the internet, replacing democratic due process with arbitrary private decisions that can lock users out of essential services.
Het hellende vlak van SIDN's commerciële ambities - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- SIDN, which manages the .NL domain registry for over 6 million websites, plans to move part of its operations to Amazon Web Services (AWS), sparking widespread criticism.
- Critics argue this move threatens the security, stability, and autonomy of Dutch and European internet infrastructure, as it outsources a critical national service to a US cloud giant.
- SIDN claims no European cloud provider can meet its needs, but this assertion is unverified and contradicts the successful self-management of domains by other European countries like France and Germany.
- The decision appears commercially driven: SIDN aims to enter the lucrative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market, partnering with Canada's CIRA, rather than focusing on its core registry duties.
- Outsourcing to AWS increases dependency on a US company, risks loss of technical expertise in Europe, and could lead to service disruptions where SIDN would have little leverage.
- As a private foundation, SIDN is not directly under government control, but a covenant with the state requires consultation; the lack of transparency and oversight has prompted parliamentary attention.
- The article calls for stronger political oversight to prevent further erosion of European digital sovereignty and to ensure critical infrastructure remains under local control.
You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics
3 months ago
- ccTLDs like .io and .ai are not owned property but are delegated to trustees as per RFC 1591, with continuity dependent on geopolitical stability.
- ccTLD retirement can occur automatically if a territory's ISO 3166-1 code is removed, as happened with domains like .yu and .an.
- .io faces unresolved risks due to sovereignty disputes over the British Indian Ocean Territory, affecting critical infrastructure like GitHub and Docker.
- .ai funds about half of Anguilla's government revenue, creating mutual dependency between the territory and over a million brands.
- Real-world disruptions include Gabon deleting .ga domains, Brexit suspending .eu domains, and the Taliban shutting down .af domains.
- Migrating from a ccTLD is costly and complex, involving SEO losses and infrastructure changes, as seen with WooCommerce's reversal.
- Mitigation strategies include holding .com defensively, avoiding single ccTLD dependencies in software supply chains, and pricing in geopolitical risk.

internet governance

RFC 8890 – The Internet is for End Users (2020)

Who Controls the Internet? And should they? - Bert Hubert's writings

Het hellende vlak van SIDN's commerciële ambities - Bert Hubert's writings

You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics