Who Owns the Internet? Governance, Actors and Structures in 2025

Introduction: The Question of Control  

The question "Who owns the internet?" appears simple at first, but proves to be scientifically complex. The technical answer is: nobody. The internet is a decentralised "network of networks" without a central owner.

In 2025, however, this answer only describes the formal architecture – the factual ownership and control structures have fundamentally changed.

Table of Contents  

Part 1: The 4-Layer Model of Internet Governance  

To understand who controls the internet, we divide it into four functional layers. Each layer has its own actors, power dynamics, and challenges:

Level 1: Physical Infrastructure – Structural Change in Undersea Cables  

Let us start with what you can touch: fibre-optic cables, undersea cables, and data centres.

Shift in Ownership: From Telecommunications Companies to Tech Giants

One of the most significant developments of the last decade concerns an infrastructure layer that is barely visible to end users: undersea cable infrastructure.

The empirical data: The share of international cable capacity used by Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft rose from 10% to over 71% within ten years. ^{[2] [3]}

Case Study: Meta's "Project Waterworth" (2025)

In February 2025, Meta announced an extensive undersea cable project: Project Waterworth. ^[1] The technical parameters:

"Waterworth is not just intended to create connectivity for Facebook or Instagram – it is designed as an engine for AI innovation worldwide."

— Meta Engineering Team, 2025

Strategic Implication: Vertical Integration

These investments go beyond cost optimisation. They enable vertical integration along the value chain:

Big Tech's Cable Portfolio in 2025

Level 2: Logical Infrastructure – Administration and Standardisation  

From the physical layer, we now move one layer upwards: while cables represent the transmission media, the logical infrastructure forms the administration and addressing layer – the "rules" of data traffic:

1. IP Addresses (Internet Protocol): The unique "postal addresses" for every device
2. DNS (Domain Name System): The distributed "phone book" that translates names into addresses

The Multistakeholder Model Under Pressure

Nobody owns this layer – instead, the "multistakeholder model" governs it ^[8]: a decentralised governance system involving technical experts, the private sector, civil society, and governments.

Key Organisations:

Case Study: ICANN's Strategic Plan 2026-2030

ICANN's new five-year Strategic Plan (in force since 1 July 2025) is remarkable: for the first time, a technical administrative organisation names geopolitical threats as a central field of action. ^{[12] [13]}

An explicit strategic goal:

"Address geopolitical issues that impact ICANN's mission to ensure a single, globally interoperable internet."

— ICANN Strategic Plan 2026-2030

This occurs in the context of initiatives (particularly by China and Russia) to transfer responsibilities for the logical layer from ICANN to UN organisations such as the ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

Impact of AI Development on Level 2

A notable development: in 2025, the IETF is addressing the "scraping" of web content by AI crawlers.

In response, the IETF established a new working group in January 2025: the "AI Preferences (AIPREF) Working Group". ^{[16] [17]}

Level 3: Platform Layer – Market Concentration in Digital Services  

Now to the layer that is most visible to users: search engines, social media, app stores, e-commerce, and cloud services – what most people perceive as "the internet".

Status in 2025: High Market Concentration Reinforced by AI Investments

In 2025, this layer is dominated by GAMA (Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple) and the "Magnificent Seven" respectively:

• Cloud: AWS dominates, generating the majority of Amazon's operating profit
• Mobile: Google (Android) & Apple (iOS) hold a duopoly over app access
• Search & Advertising: Google dominates the global search market
• E-Commerce: Amazon holds a 38% US market share
• Social Media: Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) dominates

The Regulatory Counter-Offensive: The "Brussels Effect"

The only global actor counteracting this dominance with comprehensive, robust regulation is the European Union with its legislative package consisting of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). ^{[22] [24]}

Enforcement Practice 2024/2025

The years 2024 and 2025 mark the transition from legislation to implementation. ^{[27] [31]} The EU Commission is conducting proceedings against several technology companies:

Level 4: Political Layer – Competing Governance Models  

The fourth and final layer stands above the other three: here, actors negotiate fundamental questions of regulation and control. Who defines the rules for access, content, and data flows?

Growing Fragmentation Trends

In 2025, the debate around the "Splinternet" – a fragmentation of the internet along national or regional borders – has transitioned from a theoretical discussion to an observable development. ^{[32] [33]}

Model 1: "Digital Sovereignty" (State-Centralised)

Actors: People's Republic of China, Russian Federation

Ideology: Every nation state has the unrestricted right to fully control "its" national segment of the internet. The internet is viewed not as a global common space, but as part of national territory. ^{[35] [37]}

Implementation:

Model 2: "Multistakeholder Model" (Decentralised-Open)

Actors: USA, European Union

Ideology: An open, global, free, and unfragmented internet. Administration should not be a privilege of governments, but rather a consensus process between all actors: private sector, technical community, and civil society.

Implementation: Defending the model in global forums, "Declaration for the Future of the Internet (DFI)" to form a coalition for this open model.

The 2025 Negotiations: A Critical Year at the United Nations

The clash between these governance models is taking place in 2025 in UN forums in New York and Geneva. The year 2025 is classified as a critical year for the multistakeholder model. ^{[41] [42]}

Part 2: Technical Foundations  

Addressing and Identity  

To understand the power struggles, we need a solid understanding of the technical foundations.

What is an IP Address?

An IP address is the fundamental "postal address" for every device on the internet. The crucial distinction is between:

Public IP Addresses

Example: 185.119.160.10

This is the global, globally unique address that your router receives from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Your network is only reachable from the global internet using this address. Public IP addresses are a scarce resource and are officially managed.

Private IP Addresses

Examples: 192.168.1.5, 10.0.0.8

Private IP addresses are for internal use in your local area network (LAN/WLAN). They function like "extension numbers" in an office building – "extension 101" exists in almost every company, but is only valid internally. These addresses are not routed on the global internet and are defined in RFC 1918.

NAT – The Translator

Your home router acts as a translator using NAT (Network Address Translation): the router has one public IP address. When your laptop (with the private IP 192.168.1.5) accesses a website, the router replaces the private IP with its public IP. When the response arrives, it remembers which internal device (your laptop) to forward the data to.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) automatically assigns private addresses to your devices on the Wi-Fi network.

IP Address Management: The Administrative Hierarchy

Nobody can simply "take" a public IP address. They are distributed in a strict top-down hierarchy – the heart of the logical layer (Layer 2):

1. Global Level: IANA/ICANN manages the "global pools" of all IP addresses
2. Regional Level: RIRs (e.g. RIPE NCC for Europe) receive large blocks
3. Local Level: LIRs (e.g. A1 Telekom Austria) receive smaller blocks
4. End Customers: ISPs assign you a public IP (mostly dynamically)

Address Scarcity: IPv4 vs. IPv6

For over a decade, the system has faced a fundamental problem: addresses under the old IPv4 standard have run out.

Adoption Status in 2025: The transition is running in "Dual Stack" mode – modern devices possess both address types. Your operating system tries IPv6 first, using IPv4 only as a fallback.

Regional differences (as of Q4 2025): ^{[47] [50]}

• France: ~80% IPv6 usage
• Germany: ~75%
• India: ~74%
• Austria: ~42% (EU average)
• Global: ~47%

The DNS – The "Phone Book" of the Internet

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the second pillar of the logical infrastructure. It translates human-readable names (e.g. google.com) into machine-readable IP addresses (e.g. 142.250.184.142).

The process is hierarchical:

1. Root Servers: 13 global clusters (managed by ICANN/IANA) that know who is responsible for .at
2. TLD Servers: Each top-level domain (.com, .de, .at) has its own nameservers
3. Authoritative Nameservers: The hoster (e.g. World4You, Easyname) holds the final entry (A-Record)

Data Traffic: Routing Between Networks  

We now know how addresses (IP) and names (DNS) are managed. But how do data packets find their way through thousands of networks?

The "Network of Networks": Autonomous Systems (AS)

The internet is not a single network, but a network of thousands of independent networks. Each of these large networks is an Autonomous System (AS).

An AS has:

• A globally unique number: ASN (Autonomous System Number)
• A uniform routing policy to the outside
• An operator (ISP, corporation, university)

Examples of Austrian AS:

The Navigation System: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)

BGP is the "navigation system" of the internet. It is the protocol with which Autonomous Systems talk to each other at their "borders".

How it works:

An AS (e.g. AS8447 operated by A1) uses BGP to tell its neighbouring AS which IP address blocks (called "prefixes") are reachable via its network.

The Economics of Routing: Peering vs. Transit

The connection between two AS is not a technical but a commercial decision. There are two main models of how Autonomous Systems connect their networks:

The Principle of Net Neutrality  

Within this complex system of connections and commercial agreements, one principle is of fundamental importance – linking the technical layer to the political layer:

Definition

Net neutrality, enshrined in the EU by Regulation 2015/2120, dictates: all data packets on the internet must be treated equally. The internet service provider (operator of Layer 1 and the AS on Layer 2) must not discriminate against traffic.

Prohibited actions include:

• Blocking: blocking access to legal services of a competitor (e.g. Netflix)
• Throttling: intentionally slowing down a Netflix stream to promote their own TV product
• Prioritising (Fast Lanes): charging a service provider (e.g. YouTube) money to deliver their data packets "faster"

The Current Debate in 2025: The "Fair Share" Discussion

In 2025, this principle is being challenged by the so-called "Fair Share" debate.

Status in Austria & the EU (2025)

Austria (RTR): The RTR (Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications) is the national regulatory body for net neutrality. In its Net Neutrality Report 2024 (June 2024), the RTR described the "Fair Share" debate as a "controversial topic" and emphasised that it is closely monitoring the discussion at the EU level. ^{[64] [65]}

EU Level (Tensions): While the "Fair Share" debate is being actively discussed at the political level (EU Commission), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has further strengthened the strict interpretation of net neutrality in July 2025.

In a ruling (C-367/24), the ECJ tightened rules against so-called "zero-rating" tariffs and reaffirmed that any discrimination of traffic (including the throttling of video streams in specific tariffs) violates the EU regulation. ^[67]

Part 3: Conclusion and Outlook  

The formal answer "nobody owns the internet" does not describe the empirical reality of 2025. The internet is a complex infrastructure with differentiated control structures at various levels.

Key Findings  

What Does This Mean?  

The internet in 2025 has no single central owner.

However, the analysis shows a significant concentration among a few technology giants at the physical infrastructure and platform layers, alongside an intensive negotiation process between various actors regarding the governance rules of this global infrastructure.