China has approved a new mandatory national standard governing how data must be securely erased from electronic products, aiming to reduce privacy risks in the rapidly expanding second-hand device market. The standard takes effect on 1 January 2027.
Open Rights Group and the Age Verification Providers Association warn that unregulated age-assurance services mandated by the Online Safety Act expose UK users to unnecessary privacy and security risks, urging government intervention ahead of a parliamentary debate on the law.
The Global Network Initiative (GNI) has released a detailed blog analysing Revisions 1 and 2 of the WSIS+20 Outcome Document, outlining its views on progress made and remaining gaps in areas such as human rights, multistakeholder participation and digital governance.
The Netherlands has broadly supported the European Commission’s effort to simplify digital legislation through the Digital Omnibus package. However, it has raised firm concerns that proposed changes to data-protection rules, particularly the definition of personal data, could weaken fundamental rights protections across the European Union.
Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and the RIPE Network Coordination Centre convened senior officials from ten Arab countries for the ninth annual roundtable, signalling renewed momentum on IPv6 deployment, routing security and coordinated Arab positions in global digital governance forums.
The European Commission has launched the European Partnership for Virtual Worlds, a new multi-stakeholder initiative designed to position the European Union as a global leader in virtual worlds technologies. Signed on 10 December, the partnership brings together industry, academia, research organisations and end-users, backed by €200 million in Horizon Europe funding.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order preventing individual states from enforcing their own artificial intelligence regulations, arguing that oversight should be set at the federal level. The move has reopened debate over the balance between national coordination, state authority, and consumer protection in the governance of emerging technologies.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has extended the deadline for proposals to supply expert evaluator panels for string similarity and variant string assessments in the 2026 round of the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) programme. Responses are now due by 18 February 2026.
At the 2025 Forum of Cities and Regions for International Partnerships, the European Commission announced three new Global Gateway partnerships in Mexico and Ecuador and a pilot initiative on decentralised cooperation, underscoring the growing role of local and regional authorities in shaping EU development investments.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced the students selected for the NextGen@ICANN programme at the ICANN85 Community Forum, which will take place in March 2026 in Mumbai, India. The initiative supports university students from the Asia-Pacific region in engaging with internet governance discussions.
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union.
