A three-decade natural experiment suggests America's centralized regulatory review fostered far greater wealth creation than Europe's precautionary principle, raising stark questions about whether importing EU-style AI rules would undermine US innovation and prosperity.
As policymakers search for an IAEA for AI, lessons from ICANN and internet governance loom large, raising questions about multistakeholder legitimacy, mission creep, technical fragmentation and whether AI demands sector-specific regulation rather than grand global architectures.
Under ICANN's ICP-2 framework, RIR emergency operations extend beyond technical redundancy to encompass legal relocation, policy divergence and geopolitical risk, exposing tensions between operational resilience and national sovereignty in safeguarding global internet governance.
In February 1996, a libertarian myth of cyberspace and sweeping US platform immunity collided, hardwiring digital exceptionalism. Three decades on, that original sin still shields tech and AI from accountability, with legal and social consequences.
Iran's 2026 internet shutdown was not a glitch but a trial of digital sovereignty, revealing how easily connectivity can be weaponised to silence society, concentrate state power, and fracture the promise of a global internet.
Meltnet envisions a federated internet model led by BRICS nations, combining digital sovereignty with cross-border interoperability. It challenges US-centric governance by proposing a trust-based architecture rooted in shared standards and mutual recognition.
Poland thwarted a large-scale cyberattack on its energy grid without disruption, offering a rare case study in critical infrastructure resilience, decentralised energy governance, and the balancing act between openness and digital security.
A 2026 outlook charts Internet governance between fear and hope, tracking cyber conflict, digital trade and taxation, shrinking rights, and global AI rivalry, while asking whether multistakeholder cooperation can still steer the network toward stability.
Global digital policy frameworks often overlook the realities of African SMEs, imposing compliance standards shaped by mature economies and infrastructure, thereby constraining innovation, competitiveness, and inclusion in the digital economy.
ICANN's 2026 Nominating Committee invites applications for key policy council roles that shape global Internet governance, offering leadership opportunities in domain regulation, digital rights, and multistakeholder decision-making. Deadline: 18 February 2026.