Internet governance is een complex web van organisaties, standaarden, en agreements. Niemand "bezit" het internet, maar multiple stakeholders beheren verschillende aspecten.
Internet governance organisaties
Verschillende bodies beheren specific aspects van internet infrastructure en policy development.
- ICANN - domain names en IP address allocation
- IETF - internet technical standards
- W3C - web standards (HTML, CSS)
- IEEE - networking protocols
- RIRs - regional IP address registries
- Root server operators - DNS root infrastructure
Physical internet infrastructure
Het internet draait op physical infrastructure owned door telecom companies, governments, en private entities.
Undersea cables: 99% van intercontinental internet traffic gaat via undersea fiber optic cables. Damage aan deze cables kan countries offline halen.
Nederlandse internet governance rol
SIDN (.nl registry), NLnet Labs (DNS software), en AMS-IX (internet exchange) maken Nederland key player in internet infrastructure.
Dutch influence: Nederlandse organisaties ontwikkelden DNSSEC, NSD name server software, en Unbound resolver. Disproportionate impact voor small country.
Internet standards development
Technical standards worden ontwikkeld via open processes met global participation, niet door single authority.
Centralization risks: Big Tech companies (Google, Amazon, Cloudflare) control increasing percentages van internet traffic. Decentralized governance but centralized infrastructure.
Wie kan het internet "breken"?
No single entity kan het hele internet offline halen, maar coordinated attacks op critical infrastructure kunnen major disruptions veroorzaken.
Internet resilience: Redundancy, decentralization, en open standards maken internet robust. But concentration in Big Tech creates new vulnerabilities.
Toekomst van internet governance
Debates over data sovereignty, platform regulation, en AI governance zullen internet governance complexer maken. Multi-stakeholder model under pressure van autoritaire regimes.