The award has been presented every year since 1999 by the Internet Society to "honor a person who has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community".

[23] On June 6, 2012, ISOC organized the World IPv6 Launch, this time with the intention of leaving IPv6 permanently enabled on all participating sites.

In 2016 Deploy 360 extended its campaigns to include Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) and DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE).

In 2017 ISOC's North America Region launched an annual Indigenous Connectivity Summit with an event in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As of October 2020, the ISOC is leading and facilitating multi-round meetings for Stakeholders' Dialogue to collect, compile, and submit the inputs of worldwide professionals and experts for future governance of the Internet.

[37][38][39] The society supports projects to build community networks and infrastructure, secure routing protocols, and advocate for end-to-end encryption.

[40][9][41] In 2019 the Internet Society agreed to the sale of the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to Ethos Capital for $1.135 billion, a transaction initially expected to be completed in early 2020.

The sale was met with significant opposition due to involving the transfer of what is viewed as a public asset to a private equity investment firm.

[43] In late January 2020, the ICANN halted its final approval of the sale after the Attorney General of California requested detailed documentation from all parties, citing concerns that both ICANN and the Internet Society had potentially violated their public interest missions as registered charities subject to the laws of California.

[44] In February, the Internet Society's Chapter Advisory Council (which represents its membership) began the process to adopt a motion rejecting the sale if certain conditions were not complied with.

[46][47] In September 2016, the Internet Society indicated that it would not seek to obtain a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury that would allow it to fund the activities of Iranian nationals.