TY - JOUR A1 - Flonk, Danielle A1 - Jachtenfuchs, Markus A1 - Obendiek, Anke S. T1 - Authority conflicts in internet governance: Liberals vs. sovereigntists? JF - Global Constitutionalism N2 - We analyse conflicts over norms and institutions in internet governance. In this emerging field, dispute settlement is less institutionalised and conflicts take place at a foundational level. Internet governance features two competing spheres of authority characterised by fundamentally diverging social purposes: A more consolidated liberal sphere emphasises a limited role of the state, private and multistakeholder governance and freedom of speech. A sovereigntist challenger sphere emphasises state control, intergovernmentalism and push against the preponderance of Western institutions and private actors. We trace the activation and evolution of conflict between these spheres with regard to norms and institutions in four instances: the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), the fifth session of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) and the Budapest Convention of the Council of Europe. We observe intense norm collisions, and strategic attempts at competitive regime creation and regime shifting towards intergovernmental structures by the sovereigntist sphere. Despite these aggressive attempts at creating new institutions and norms, the existing internet governance order is still in place. Hence, authority conflicts in global internet governance do not necessarily lead to fragmentation. KW - contested multilateralism KW - internet governance KW - norm collisions KW - sovereignty Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045381720000167 SN - 2045-3817 VL - 9 IS - 2 SP - 364 EP - 386 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Flonk, Daniƫlle A1 - Jachtenfuchs, Markus A1 - Obendiek, Anke T1 - Controlling internet content in the EU: towards digital sovereignty JF - Journal of European Public Policy N2 - We analyse the rhetoric and reality of EU digital sovereignty by looking at content control. The control of online content is central to sovereignty because it relates to fundamental freedoms and democratic competition. Our main data source is the unique International Organizations in Global Internet Governance (IO-GIG) dataset which contains internet policy output documents across international institutions and issue areas between 1995 and 2021. By assessing policy output, we show structural trends in content control output in volume, bindingness, and orientation. By analysing policy discourse, we show the evolution of frames on content control over time. We find evidence for a comprehensive but still ongoing trend towards digital sovereignty in policy output and a shift from prioritising free access to the public order in discourse. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2309179 N1 - Open Access publication is funded by the Hertie School Library VL - 31 IS - 8 SP - 2316 EP - 2342 ER -