The EU and Internet standards – Beyond the spin, a strategic turn?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the nature and implications of the European Union (EU)’s recent discourse and policy approach towards Internet standards. Internet is a network of interconnected networks that can communicate with one another thanks to shared protocols, most often produced by standard-developing organisations. This research analyses the effects of the discursive turn of the EU – as part of its new digital sovereignty agenda – and investigates whether it has materialised into actual changes in the way the EU engages with the making process of Internet standards since 2019. This article shows that the EU’s approach towards these arenas has been and remains inconsistent. It argues that the EU’s increasing ‘digital assertiveness’ and digital sovereignty discourses have led to a few noticeable policy evolutions, whose effects remain largely unintended and that could further normalise state-based interventions in the Internet architecture.