The hidden rules of the internet

Every time someone opens a browser, sends a message or fills out an online form, decisions made far from their screen shape how that interaction works. Questions about domain names, technical standards, online safety, content moderation and access are all part of internet governance, a field that can sound abstract until you ask a simple question: who actually gets to decide?

Dr. Ibiso Kingsley-George, a public administrator and internet governance expert working on regulatory policy, digital transformation and inclusive technology development, and Amina Ramallan, a cybersecurity and internet governance professional focused on internet safety and digital resilience, unpack that question from their vantage point in Nigeria's digital ecosystem.

The two also work together in a different capacity. Kingsley-George mentors and Ramallan participates in the Women in GovTech Challenge, a program where women from different countries build prototypes of digital public services.

https://youtu.be/kYxNk5TvkIg

The multi-stakeholder model and its limits in practice

Internet governance is built around a multi-stakeholder model. As Kingsley-George explains, governments, private companies, international and regional organizations, civil society and the technical community all participate in shaping the rules of the internet. In principle, each should have a voice in how the internet works. 

In practice, that balance is not always maintained. Technology companies set rules for their own platforms. Governments operate within an internet that crosses national borders, making it difficult to control every risk their citizens encounter online.

International resolutions still depend on individual states translating them into domestic policy, a process Kingsley-George says can lose momentum when governments change or institutions are weak.

Geopolitics adds another layer. Kingsley-George points to the influence of larger states in internet governance and argues that voices from the Global South remain underrepresented in standard-setting.

“The people who set the standards don't necessarily really come out of the global South countries. And that is really sad.”

For her, this imbalance has practical consequences. Standards need to account for whether people can access the internet safely, whether relevant content exists and whether services work for users who do not speak English.

The invisible infrastructure behind the internet

Most users experience the internet through what appears on a screen: type something into a browser, send a message, receive a result.

Ramallan points to a layer most people rarely think about: the Domain Name System, or DNS, which she describes as part of the backbone of internet infrastructure. She uses it to illustrate a broader point. Many of the technical and governance decisions affecting users happen behind the scenes.

She also points to phishing scams, including fake discounts and fraudulent job offers, as examples of the online risks ordinary users continue to face. For Ramallan, this is one reason internet governance should not remain a conversation only for governments, companies or technical experts.

Since no single stakeholder controls the internet, she argues that ordinary users should participate in the conversations shaping it.

Nigeria's digital ecosystem and the gap between perception and reality

Both speakers describe a recurring misconception in conversations with people outside Nigeria: an assumption that the country's digital ecosystem is less developed than it actually is.

Ramallan says international contacts are often surprised when she points to developments in Nigeria's connectivity, digital policies and online-safety initiatives. She attributes those reactions to a broader underestimation of how far the country's technology ecosystem has progressed.

Kingsley-George connects this to a wider perception that Africa as a whole is digitally “behind.” She points out that Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and has a large online population, while its technology sector has produced companies that have expanded well beyond the domestic market.

As an example, she mentions Nigerian fintech companies Paystack and Flutterwave. Paystack was acquired by Stripe in 2020, while Flutterwave has expanded its operations across Africa.

What real digital inclusion looks like beyond connectivity

Access to the internet is often treated as the finish line for digital inclusion. Ramallan argues that it is only one part of the equation.

“Inclusion goes beyond just access. It has to do with access. It has to do with skills. It has to do with the ability to be safe, to be able to become confident online.”

She illustrates the gap with two examples. A young girl in a rural area might have internet access and digital skills, but if she cannot participate safely and confidently, Ramallan does not consider that full digital inclusion.

Conversely, a farmer without 4G who can still reach buyers and sell crops in his own language represents meaningful participation because he can use digital tools on terms that work for him.

Kingsley-George adds affordability and adaptability to the equation. The cost of internet services matters, but so does the affordability of devices and whether those devices work for people who do not primarily use English.

Both speakers point to the mismatch between the world's linguistic diversity and an internet environment that remains heavily oriented toward English.

Universal Acceptance and an internet that works in local languages

Ramallan discusses her work on Universal Acceptance, an initiative focused on ensuring that domain names and email addresses work correctly across different languages and scripts.

The issue is easy to overlook if you use Latin characters every day. But not every language uses the same alphabet, and not every person's name can be represented naturally in English-language characters.

Universal Acceptance targets that technical barrier. Domain names and email addresses using different language scripts should work reliably across online services.

Ramallan gives a practical example. A business owner may have a website, but if that website cannot process a customer's email address written in another script, the contact form may fail and the business may lose that customer.

For individual users, she argues, the implications go further than functionality. Being able to use your own name and language can make the internet feel more accessible and less like foreign infrastructure that users have to adapt themselves to.

Device manufacturers also have a role. Ramallan notes that keyboards often default to English, while accessing other language scripts may require additional settings and may not be available for every language.

Designing public services through the Women in GovTech Challenge

Kingsley-George and Ramallan connect these broader questions about inclusion and governance to hands-on service design through the Women in GovTech Challenge.

Kingsley-George mentors a team working on birth and death registration in South Africa, while Ramallan's team is developing a prototype focused on driver's license issuance and endorsement in Kenya.

South Africa: streamlining birth and death registration

The team Kingsley-George mentors is developing a platform intended to make birth and death registration smoother in South Africa.

Her feedback to the team has focused on interoperability and inclusion. Can blind people use the platform? Can it connect with other government services? Can it reduce the need for citizens to travel between different parts of government?

Kingsley-George also points to the emotional burden surrounding these services, particularly death registration, alongside the administrative difficulties citizens face. If implemented and scaled, she argues, the service could reduce the burden both for people who have just had a child and for those mourning the loss of someone close to them.

Kenya: improving driver's license issuance

Ramallan's team is prototyping an improved process for driver's license issuance and endorsement in Kenya.

As the team mapped the existing process, it identified manual paper exams that create opportunities for corruption and bias, inconsistent testing between regions, no feedback mechanism for applicants and no way to track application status. Applicants may also need to visit a licensing center multiple times.

The prototype digitizes testing so results can be available immediately. It aims to complete the tests and biometric capture on the same day, introduces application tracking and adds a mechanism for applicants to provide feedback on their experience.

Working across countries also surfaced a pattern Ramallan did not expect. Teams from very different places were encountering similar problems, including government agencies struggling to communicate with each other digitally.

She also found that apparently simple problems become more complex once teams begin considering policy requirements and how citizens will adapt to a new service.

What government teams tend to overlook when building digital services

Drawing on her experience, Kingsley-George highlights a recurring blind spot in prototype design: teams often design with people like themselves in mind.

That can mean overlooking citizens who do not speak the same language as the designers, cannot use the same devices or interfaces, or have different accessibility needs.

She raises concrete questions. Can someone who is autistic use an interface without being disrupted by excessive noise or light? Can the platform still work where only 2G connectivity is available? Has safety been considered for different categories of users? And can the service interoperate with other government systems?

Regulation also needs to be considered. Kingsley-George warns that teams can design services “in a bubble,” overlooking some of the rules, stakeholders and systems that will eventually affect implementation.

Her broader point is that design teams need to move beyond their own assumptions and consider the full range of citizens, regulations and interoperability requirements surrounding a service.

A shared responsibility, not a single authority

Towards the end of the conversation, Ramallan returns to one of the episode's central themes: the role users themselves play in shaping the future of the internet.

“So the internet we experience tomorrow, it's actually based on our actions from today.”

She encourages people to contribute, participate and make their voices heard in conversations about how the internet evolves.

Kingsley-George complements this perspective by focusing on how digital systems should be built:

“Inclusive, trusted, and resilient digital systems do not happen by chance.”

They require deliberate policy, collaboration between stakeholders, sustained advocacy and a commitment to making technology work for everyone.

Listen to the full episode

This article draws on a conversation from Code the State's Women in GovTech Challenge series, featuring Dr. Ibiso Kingsley-George and Amina Ramallan.

Listen to the full episode for their complete discussion on internet governance, digital inclusion, Nigeria's digital ecosystem, Universal Acceptance and their work within the Women in GovTech Challenge.