I'm back from Brazil, where I appeared on several panels at the IGF. A podcast version of my remarks at the plenary openness panel is here.
Openness at the IGF
November 16, 2007
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 278: Ben Waldman on Gander Social and the Challenges of Building a Sovereign Social Network
byMichael Geist

August 10, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Michael Geist on Substack
Recent Posts
A Canary’s Song: What Antisemitism Reveals About the Health of Canadian Democracy
Elbows Up With Europe Too: Why Canada’s Pivot to the EU Raises the Same Digital Sovereignty Questions as the U.S.
A Century After Keeping Jewish Students Out, Universities Are Letting Them Be Pushed Out
The Lessons of 9/11 We Forgot After October 7th
Named to Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers

NetChoice
Governments who want to stomp-out dissidents or just stick a finger in the American eye are attempting to hijack the “Critical Internet Resources (CIR)” debate. For them, the term “Protecting Critical Internet Resources” has become a euphemism for “killing ICANN.” Those who see ICANN as a mechanism for American imperialism over the Internet are grossly overestimating the power of ICANN.
The technology industry spent a trillion dollars to bring the Internet to a billion people, with little help from governments. We are investing even more to help fulfill IGF’s mandate to reach the next billion people – and that is what the world’s repressive regimes fear. We cannot shove the private sector out of room, leaving governments–including some notoriously repressive regimes–in control of a vital Internet resource.
[ link ]