Norm conflict in the governance of transnational and distributed infrastructures: the case of Internet routing

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how a deeply embedded norm can be used to exert power and control in the governance of distributed infrastructures, such as the Internet. Through the lens of norm conflict, I analyse a case of resistance against the introduction of norms in the transnational governance of Internet routing. In a mixed-methods case study, I examine through an experiment how a community of network operators resists the introduction of data protection and human rights norms in the Internet routing infrastructure. To provide a possible explanation as to how a prevalent and deeply embedded norm enables the resistance to the introduction of new norms, I develop the notion of ‘infrastructural norms’. This concept could help explain why Internet infrastructure governance thus far has largely defied national and international democratic norms. The understanding of how norms are used in infrastructure governance contributes to the study of power in large technical systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Infrastructural power
• Internet governance
• global governance
• international relations
• infrastructural norms
• norm conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.afrinic.net/library/corporate-documents/2061-anti-shutdown-01 accessed on 18 July 2019.

2 https://lists.afrinic.net/pipermail/rpd/2017/007671.html accessed on 18 July 2019.

3 https://datactive.github.io/bigbang/ accessed on 31 October 2019.

4 N3319.

5 N2719.

6 N2719, N2819, N3719, N3819, N4019.

7 N3119.

8 N3219.

9 N3919.

10 N4019.

11 N3819.

12 N2619, N2719, N2819, N3119, N3219, N3319, N3519, N3619, N3719, N3819, N3919, N4019.

13 N2719.

14 N{26-42}19.

15 N4019.

16 N2518, N3219, N4219.

17 N2619, N2719, N3119, N3319, N3719, N3919, N4019, N4219.

18 Peering is the interconnection of networks without costs involved for any of the involved networks.

19 N4219.

20 https://business-humanrights.org/en/find-companies accessed on 17 November 2019.

21 N2619.

22 N3319.

23 https://ripe78.ripe.net/archives/video/111/ accessed on 23 August 2019.

24 https://ripe78.ripe.net/archives/video/111/ accessed on 23 August 2019.

25 N4019.

26 N2619.

27 N4019.

28 N2619, N2719, N3119, N3219, N3719, N3919, N4119.

29 N4019.

30 N2819.

31 N3419.

32 N3119.

33 https://ripe78.ripe.net/archives/video/111/ accessed on 23 August 2019.

34 N3819.

35 N4019.

36 N2619.

37 N4019.

38 N2619, N2719, N3119, N3219, N3719, N3919, N4119.

39 N3819.

40 N3119.

41 N3019, N3819.

42 N3219.

43 N2619, N2719, N3119, N3219, N3719, N3919, N4119.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ford Foundation [132156]; the University of Amsterdam [ASCA Finishing Fellowship]; and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 639379-DATACTIVE, awarded to Stefania Milan as Principal Investigator; https://data-activism.net).

Notes on contributors

Niels ten Oever

Niels ten Oever is a postdoctoral researcher with the ‘Making the hidden visible: Co-designing for public values in standards-making and governance’ – project at the Media Studies department at the University of Amsterdam. He is also a research fellow with the Centre for Internet and Human Rights at the European University Viadrina and an associated scholar with the Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas. His research focuses on how norms, such as human rights, get inscribed, resisted, and subverted in the Internet infrastructure through its transnational governance. Niels tries to understand how invisible infrastructures provide a socio-technical ordering to information societies and how this influences the distribution of wealth, power, and possibilities. While writing his PhD ‘Wired Norms: Inscription, resistance, and subversion in the governance of the Internet infrastructure’, Niels was affiliated with the DATACTIVE Research Group at the Media Studies and Political Science department at the University of Amsterdam. Before that Niels has worked as Head of Digital for ARTICLE19 where he designed, fund-raised, and set up the digital programme which covered the Internet Engineering Taskforce, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Institute for Electric and Electronic Engineers, and the International Telecommunications Union. Before that Niels designed and implemented freedom of expression projects with Free Press Unlimited. He holds a cum laude MA in Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam.