Principles of Stacktivism

Abstract

Those that define internet standards shape our thinking and hold the key to our freedom of communication — no trivial task. Yet tech policy is seen as boring: delegated to engineers, lawyers that represent corporations, research universities and ministries. In the now-past age of globalization internet governance and the machines that decide over regulations, protocols and the use of patents was outsourced to technocrats with a few ‘global civil society’ NGOs agitating on the margins. However, in this age of 5G and TikTok conflicts, driven by calls for ‘techno sovereignty’, there is no more consensus (and running code). In short, we demand protocols, not platforms.[1] But who’s going to get us there? Meet the stacktivists.[2]