Internet governance

Description

Total length of the course: 2-4 hours

The internet was never just a technology — it was always also a governance arrangement, built on physical infrastructure, fragile protocols, and contested institutions that most users never see. This course traces that architecture from undersea cables and the domain name system through the organizations that manage it, examining how legitimacy crises from the Snowden revelations to the invasion of Ukraine have tested the multistakeholder model. It then turns to the internet as a site of global politics, investigating UN negotiations over responsible state behaviour and cybercrime, the limits of voluntary norms, and a digital rights landscape where platform power is growing and internet shutdowns have become a routine tool of state control.