Transnational private governance of the Internet: The roles of business

The Internet is more transnational than almost anything: from the user’s perspective, borders are invisible and can largely be ignored – or at least circumvented. Internet governance is, to the extent there is any, situated mostly in a private realm. Still, this emblem of transnational private governance (TPG) has its limitations, and those limits are currently exposed and contested to an unprecedented degree. Governance initiatives involving private and public, technical and political, national and transnational participants abound. This chapter fleshes out TPG and the Internet governance process, with a focus on the roles that business corporations play in this development.