ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author leverages the framework of metagovernance to functionally differentiate the private and multistakeholder internet governance regime and the multilateral internet governance regime. The analysis shows how both regimes operate with functionally narrow remits that are shaped by their respective guiding norms. Whereas the private internet governance regime is bound together through the guiding norms of voluntary interconnection, the guiding norm of the multilateral internet governance regime is also to ensure that the technical infrastructure accommodates national and regional norms and values. This chapter argues that rather than one regime potentially displacing another, one can better understand transnational internet governance as a regime complex that functionally and effectively consists of two normative, and normatively limited, regimes. These two normative regimes jointly shape the internet as we know it. This allows one to obtain a higher-level view of the vast field of internet infrastructure and its governance and enables one to interrogate the respective regimes using their respective norms. The analysis concludes that the resurgence of the nation-state through the rise of the multilateral internet governance regime is a direct consequence of the inability of the private internet governance regime to accommodate social and legal norms that do not increase interconnection and interoperability.
