Keynote: Who really controls the Internet? And should they?

 

Keynote: Who really controls the Internet? And should they?

Speaker: Bert Hubert

This presentation discusses how control of the internet experience is moving more and more into the hands of browser and phone vendors. The advent of end-to-end encryption, also on control planes and metadata like DNS, means that no one else is able to influence the internet - except in extremely heavy handed and binary fashion. This moves a lot of agency to browser and phone vendors, who now can decide if and how they want to help governments and societies, or not. They could also enforce their own vision on what the internet & society should be. If governments don't agree, they have to resort to heavy measures to impose their will, as we've recently seen happening in Russia. In this talk I show with examples how this is the new reality. I also place these developments into a historical context -- shifting of control between governments and industry is nothing new. This context may help us ponder what developments are good and which aren't - because there are no easy answers. (While Bert is a Dutch government/inteligence agency regulator, his presentation does not reflect government policy)

Keynote: Who really controls the internet? And should they? (pdf)

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