Historically, the ability to shape rules governing international communication has had crucial political and economic implications. Internet governance contests are the latest manifestation of this informational geopolitics. Governments, private enterprises and civil society actors each understand that, for a limited time, the norms and rules governing digital data transmission across international borders are malleable, and are thus engaging in heated exchanges in various fora aiming to shape the constitution of related international law.
Building on research on the significance of the technical nature of internet governance, this presentation politicizes the topic by outlining how major state and non-state actors from the 'global south' are challenging existing net governance institutions through the oldest intergovernmental organization in existence: the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). While American technology corporations and key elements of the US government, including members of Congress, the State Department, and the Department of Defense see the ITU as a threat to the existing global internet architecture, this presentation moves beyond the fierce rhetoric surrounding the ITU's alleged power-grab to explore what drives the tensions surrounding ITU's interest in digital communications, what is at stake, and what has resulted from the resurgence of the 'global south' in this space.
Shawn Powers is an Assistant Professor and directs the Center for Global Information Studies at Georgia State University. His research specializes in international political communication with particular attention to the geopolitics of information and technology policy. Powers co-leads a European Union and British Council funded project on Civic Approaches to Religious Conflict. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and is a Fellow at Central European University's Center for Media, Data and Society. Previously, he has been a fellow at LSE's Polis, the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Global Communication Studies, and Oxford's Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy. Twitter: @shawnpowers