Standards are the key factor behind fragmentation, including in relation to strategic competition.
Perarnaud 24 – Postdoctoral Researcher at the Brussels School of Governance, PhD in Political Science from the University Pompeu Fabra.
Clément Perarnaud, “Finding the path to a more open internet. A new European approach toward internet standards,” Open Future, 02-12-2024, https://openfuture.pubpub.org/pub/internet-standards/release/3
Standards are indeed at the center of many states’ and companies’ strategies to exert global influence and shape the internet “in their own image.” Standards allow for the interoperability between the tens of thousands of autonomous systems connecting worldwide. Standards have become arguably the most important pieces of the infrastructure making the internet a global network of networks. Due to their economic and strategic importance, internet standards are thus inevitably the subject and reflection of intense economic and political battles.