White House resumes its internet alliance efforts

The Biden administration is getting closer to launching its proposed Alliance for the Future of the Internet. Administration officials originally hoped to launch this effort of “like-minded countries” in early December 2021 in tandem with the president’s Summit for Democracy. (Here’s a draft of the White House’s plans for alliance from the time.) Ruth Berry, who directs digital technology policy at the National Security Council, said January 12 to watch for a formal launch "in the coming weeks." "We are not proposing to reinvent or supplant existing good work being done in multi-stakeholder bodies that focus on the technical governance of the internet or the work being done to bring together the internet community," said Berry. "The alliance is really focused on governments making commitments regarding their actions on how they will behave with respect to the global internet and recommitting to the principles of competition, respect for human rights, multi-stakeholder approaches, closing the digital divide and other issues." Berry suggested that once the alliance is launched, there will be further global conversations about how to structure it. The Chinese government has already condemned the proposal as having the potential to sunder the global internet.