From Internet to offnets: Exploring the hidden process of off-netisation

This paper shows the importance of considering the rise of off-nets in the study of Internet infrastructures, both by looking at their politics and performativity. Off-nets refer to the servers that large Internet content providers, such as Akamai, Google and Netflix, deploy directly in networks close to their end users. A substantial proportion of global Internet traffic is now channelled through off-nets, effectively bypassing what is known as the public Internet. Off-net deployments are presented as an essential site to observe how technological companies can both blur and re-shape the distinction as to what is public or private about the Internet, and in doing so, re-order power arrangements over Internet traffic and its governance. Combining approaches from political science and science and technology studies, this research suggests that this development leads to the “infrastructuring” of a “multi-speed” Internet, running counter to principles of net neutrality, “fair” competition and security. By studying the Internet through the lens of infrastructures studies, this research shows how the privatisation of the Internet infrastructure allowed by off-nets has led to the partial subversion of the Internet’s traditional socio-technical imaginary in the pursuit of a network ideology favouring economic gains and control.