Wired norms Inscription, resistance, and subversion in the governance of the Internet infrastructure

In this dissertation, I study the norms that shape the Internet’s underlying structure through its transnational governance. Internet governance produces a global and interoperable Internet functioning as a general-purpose communication network in transnational governance bodies. I examine four cases of norm conflict and evolution in three key Internet governance institutions: the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF); the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); and the Réseaux IP Européens Network (RIPE).
I show how social and legal norms evolve, are introduced, subverted, and resisted by participants in Internet governance processes in order to develop policies, technologies, and standards to produce an interconnected Internet. I leverage notions and insights from science and technology studies and international relations to illuminate how a sociotechnical imaginary, architectural principles, and an entrenched norm function as instruments of metagovernance in the Internet infrastructure.
The aim of this dissertation is to show how Internet governance happening in multistakeholder bodies, what I call private Internet governance, solely functions to increase interconnection between independent networks. I argue that while the sociotechnical imaginary and architectural principles serve to legitimize this governance ordering, the entrenched norm, what I call the infrastructural norm that transcends singular institutions, guides the distributed private governance regime. I conclude that the private Internet governance regime is designed and optimized for the narrow and limited role of increasing interconnection. As a result, the governance regime resists aligning Internet infrastructure with social or legal norms, such as human rights or data protection, that might limit or hamper increasing interconnection.