Internet Law & Governance

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Over the past forty years, the Internet has developed at an incredible pace. While the Internet in the 1980s consisted of a handful of computers, nowadays, the Internet connects us to billions of people around the globe. This rapid growth brought a need for a system of governance. In the first years of the Internet, its users consisted of a relatively homogenous group, mainly academics, experimenting with new possible features. When the number of users started to grow, and the personal computer became accessible to the general public, a new group of users emerged that saw the potential of the Internet for illegal activities. Governments responded to these kinds of activities by regulating and monitoring Internet activity. Besides unlawful activity, legal conduct can also be problematic. The Internet brought a number of companies that obtained very powerful positions in our society. They can control what kind of content we watch or the results we get in our searches. Moreover, they can gather vast data and profile us with increasing accuracy.

The course follows three Internet eras and addresses some of the most important economic and societal disruptions arising during these periods and compares regulatory approaches (statutory laws and self-regulation) taken by the European Union and the United States. It addresses opinions and theories primarily arising out of law and computer science, but also includes references to sociology, communication and media studies.

Topics each week:

• The Foundations of the World Wide Web
• Platform Regulation
• Data Protection & Privacy
• Apps & IoT
• AI & Machine Learning
• Intellectual Property in the age of AI
• Cybercrime & Cyberwar