Internet Governance

On Monday, June 17th, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a final draft of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), and in it ‘gaming disorder’ is listed as a ‘disorder due to addictive behaviours’. The draft explicitly describes the disorder as a persistent behaviour pattern that can lead to significant widespread impairment across all ‘important areas of functioning’.

Technology has great potential to help deliver the SDGs, but it can also be at the root of exclusion and inequality. We need to harness the benefits of advanced technologies for all.

- UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, at the closing of the 2018 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

Six months into 2018, technology continues to meet humanity around data protection, ethics and artificial intelligence (AI), online gaming addiction as a health condition, the security of Internet users, and many other digital issues. Governments, business and users worldwide are in search of the right balance between technological innovation and the progress of humanity.

Issues related to the digital economy have gained prominance in the last few years. The volume of e-commerce is soaring, and the impact of cross-border data flows on gross domestic product (GDP) growth is now larger than the impact of the traditional flow of goods. Policy discussions at the national level, in regional trade agreements, and at the World Trade Organization (WTO), reveal a growing interplay between trade and digital policy agendas.

Last year’s rise in the price of cryptocurrency, and the emergence of a new way for collecting money from the public - Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) - introduced a massive rise of the cryptocurrency market valuation. At one point it peeked at USD$500 billion, and current stats are putting it at a USD$350 billion mark.   

In May 2017, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark appointed the World's first 'tech ambassador' to Silicon Valley. 

The tech industry of the US California Bay Area has an unprecedented impact on the digital world. In addition to the technological advancements, it affects the economy, policy, and society, and engages with people worldwide. Technology is becoming synonymous with issues of security, protection of human rights of citizens, ensuring the stability of the future development of individual nation states by staying on the forefront of technological advancement, and anticipating its policy implications.

The normal business cycle of a company operating across borders – such as Internet companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook – involves offering goods or services for a profit, paying taxes, and reinvesting the money.

Many Internet companies based in the USA are earning billions in revenues in other jurisdictions. For them to reinvest it in the USA, they need to repatriate the money – on which they need to pay tax.

The Cambridge Analytica case putting Facebook and other Internet companies under scrutiny, taxation issues in focus again as the European Commision issues tax proposals and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) releases interim report, and autonomous car accident raising safety and security issues were among the main digital policy developments in March 2018.

The increasingly digitalised world, the sharing economy, and the ongoing developments in automation and AI bring changes to the world of work. Several reports and studies released this month shed light on how these changes could look, how employers and employees perceive them, and what stakeholders can do to better prepare for the new world of work.