Poder y autoridad en las relaciones internacionales: el control del comercio electrónico en Internet

by Ibáñez Muñoz, Josep

ABSTRACT Electronic Commerce on the Internet is controlled essentially by private actors, most of them companies and business associations of the economic sectors related to information and communication tecnologies (ICT). These actors, sometimes like true authorities, use their power on the electronic markets trough normative frameworks and technical standards allowing them to establish the rules of infrastructures, code and content of the Internet. Public authorities, especially in the United States, have offered the private sector their acquiescence and suport in order to control the power structures of the cyberspace. This control has reduced the risks threatening the expansion of the electronic markets, but at the same time it has contributed to the transformation of the Internet, so that a predominantly public, open, free and cheap space is becoming a predominantly private, restricted, controlled and expensive space.