Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) is a research institute dedicated to exploring the dynamic relationship between the Internet and society, including the increasing interpenetration of digital infrastructures and various domains of everyday life. Its goal is to understand the interplay of social-cultural, legal, economic, and technical norms in the process of digitisation.

The Institute focuses its work on studying the dynamics of innovation on the Internet as an interplay between socio-cultural, technical, and legal norms. The research it conducts covers the following four main areas: Internet and media regulation, Internet policy and governance, Internet-enabled innovations, and global constitutionalims and the Internet. 

The HIIG also cooperates with various academic institutions and groups around the world, with the aim to create and share knowledge on an international level, as well as to support capacity building within the research field of Internet and society in developing and emerging countries. 

Within its research area ‘Internet policy and governance’, the Institute has developed the Internet Policy Review, a news and analysis service about Internet regulation in Europe. The Review tracks public regulatory changes and private policy developments which are expected to have long lasting impacts on European societies.