Internet governance is no longer a neutral process—it’s a power play. In this spotlight, Resident Senior Fellow Konstantinos Komaitis unpacks the slow unraveling of a once borderless web, exposing how states, tech giants, and international institutions are redrawing the digital map in their image, often sidelining the very principles that built the internet.
How geopolitical rivalries and power grabs are reshaping the future of internet governance
Internet governance today resembles a diplomatic clown car—too many players, no clear driver, and the road signs keep changing. What began as a utopian experiment in bottom-up coordination has mutated into a geopolitical tug-of-war. The United States talks of “freedom and openness” while quietly expanding surveillance powers. China pushes “cyber sovereignty,” wrapping censorship in the language of national security. Meanwhile, Europe crafts exquisite regulations no one else reads, much less follows.
Multi-stakeholder forums limp along, their consensus-building as slow as dial-up internet. The United Nations is seizing the opportunity, becoming a welcoming platform for state-led control. Big Tech sits at the table, too—sometimes as guests, sometimes as the table itself. Africa and Latin America, caught in the crossfire, are sold “capacity building” while the real decisions happen in closed rooms and backchannels.
The result? A splintering net. Not the open, global commons we were promised, but a patchwork of techno-borders, where the rulebook changes with each jurisdiction—and each regime. Internet governance isn’t broken. It’s just being actively reassembled, piece by piece, by actors who believe control beats connectivity.
– Konstantinos Komaitis, Resident Senior Fellow, Democracy+Tech Initiative
New This Week
Unlocking the Archives
The US just logged off from internet freedom (July 2025)
The retreat of the United States from the digital rights arena creates a vacuum that authoritarian states are eager to occupy, writes Konstantinos Komaitis.
Konstantinos Komaitis’ statement to the UN Informal Interactive WSIS stakeholder consultation (June 2025)
Konstantinos Komaitis’ statement regarding the progress and challenges of implementing the goals from the World Summit on the Information Society.
Digital governance needs the IGF more than it needs a new UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (December 2024)
In the context of digital governance, change has never happened this fast before, writes Konstantinos Komaitis.
Analysis: a brave new reality after the UN’s Global Digital Compact (October 2024)
Resident Senior Fellow Konstantinos Komaitis describes global internet governance negotiations as “convoluted” and “out of reach”
Internet governance interrupted (May 2024)
A readout from Konstantinos Komaitis of the events of NetMundial+10.
WORLD BRIEF
By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. policy toward Israel, last-minute White House trade measures, and the resignation of Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas.
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Good afternoon. Here’s what you should know today, July 31:
- Tariff-fueled iPhone sales dial up Apple’s quarterly earnings
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A Ukraine without Ukrainians: Putin is erasing Europe’s largest nation
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via UkraineAlert
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What you need to know tonight about national and global security
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Economics
By Michael Simmons
Hello and welcome to The Spectator’s Economics newsletter: your guide to the week’s biggest stories across business, money, property, stocks and shares and, of course, the economy, brought to you by our journalists and contributors
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Dear Felipe,
Hi there, in today’s edition:
- China raises security concerns about Nvidia chips
- Trump sends Witkoff to address Gaza food crisis
- Myanmar makes a cosmetic change ahead of “elections”
- Hezbollah says “no” to disarming
- Graphic Truth: Mass shootings in the US
- Plus, coming soon: The most expensive US Senate race in history?
Enjoy, and thanks for reading,