Internet Regulation Brief

Your monthly insights on global developments impacting the Internet

Updated: April 2022

Internet Regulation Brief

Internet Regulation

The Internet has brought enormous global benefits in connecting the world and enabling creativity, productivity and social connection. But some aspects of the Internet are facing increasing scrutiny and attention. We feel that there is benefit in bringing to life the public conversation about the Future of the Internet – in short, what ordinary people think about the effects and implications of new developments online.

A formal definition for 'Internet Regulation' doesn’t yet exist. However, one way to view it is to look at the concerns which are raised by policymakers, regulators, consumers, industry bodies and other activist groups. We see these concerns as being grouped into 12 Topic Areas:

To help contextualise these evolving concerns, our Internet Regulation Topic Tracker visualises the key societal, individual and corporate trends that are driving public sentiment and may influence regulatory developments.

Internet Regulation Topic Tracker

The Internet has brought enormous global benefits in connecting the world and enabling creativity, productivity and social connections. But some aspects of the Internet are facing increasing scrutiny and are at the centre of public attention. Our 12 Internet Regulation Topics monitor the key societal, individual and corporate trends that are driving public sentiment and regulatory developments.

Hover over our Topic Tracker to see the headlines driving online engagement via social media and news articles.

  • Our tracker is based on data supplied from a news and social media aggregation platform (NewsWhip).
  • Deloitte has developed and maintains a proprietary Topic-based ‘ontology’ – a set of keywords and search terms related to each Topic – which identifies specific relevant news articles.
  • We can see the total reach of news and social media interactions for each Topic, which we use to rank them from #1 (most) to #12 (least) in our Tracker.
  • The Tracker covers the previous 20 weeks to show a broad view of trends and patterns over time.
  • Currently the news sources are English language only but we hope to extend to cover other languages soon.

Policy, Law & Regulation Timeline

"In the last 40 years there has been an explosion of digital communications enabled by the Internet. From bulletin boards and blogs, to social networks, to video streaming apps and endless comment threads, we all use the Internet to work, learn, plan and live many other parts of our lives.

But as the world has become connected, we're facing the same challenges we see in the real world - with harmful and antisocial behaviour, political misinformation and crime - but now unconstrained by national borders and able to spread instantly and affect many more people. Naturally, policymakers are looking to ensure that the Internet is a safe and open space for everyone."
Nick Seeber Internet Regulation Lead Partner Deloitte UK

Our timeline helps you to navigate and keep up-to-date on recent developments across the EU, US, UK and other jurisdictions. These timeline activities are tagged to our 12 Internet Regulation Topics and include explanatory notes from our Internet Regulation specialists.

For more details on the key principles of Internet Regulation and how Deloitte can support you on your journey to compliance, please visit our Internet Regulation Services page.

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Contact us

Contact the team: To find out more about Deloitte’s perspectives on Internet Regulation or speak to an expert please send us an email.

Press enquiries: We are delighted to work with journalists. To feature our research in news articles or other publications please contact our public affairs team.

Nick Seeber

Partner, Internet Regulation Lead

Joanna (Joey) Conway

Partner, Internet Regulation, Legal