Foundations of Online Order

Abstract

Chapter 2 opens with a foundational analysis of regulatory approaches to technology. In particular, the chapter’s sections sketch the regulation of ICTs through time, the criticality of the internet in its societal context, and the importance of protecting the internet in the common interest. Thereafter, special challenges of internet regulation are examined, including the role of non-state actors (intermediaries) and the flexible use of non-traditional regulatory means, such as code and algorithms. The chapter concludes with a consideration of which of the study’s hypotheses as to the hybridity of the internet and the importance of values-based normativity are borne out by the foregoing analysis.