Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Changing Legal and Regulatory Ecology Shaping the Internet

Presentation for the Launch of the W3C UK & Ireland Office, Keble College, 18 April 2011.

William H. Dutton, Anna Dopatka, Michael Hills, Ginette Law, and Victoria Nash

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

 

Cascading Issues over Freedom of Expression

The Internet Reconfigures Access in Ways that Can Empower Networked Individuals

Ecology of Choices Shaping Free Expression

Digital Rights

• Access – Freedom of Connection

• Freedom of Expression• Censorship• Equality (media literacy)• Freedom of Information• Privacy & Data Protection

Worldwide Diffusion of the Internet

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

14%1%

24%

10% 3%

42%

6%

266

21

475

205

63

825

111

77%

61%58%

35%30%

22%

11%

Percent of global Internet population Number of Internet users (mio.)

Internet penetration within region

%In

tern

et u

sers

To

tal

nu

mb

er o

f In

tern

et u

sers

in

reg

ion

(m

io.)

Source: Internet World Stats - www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm. Penetration rates are based on a world population of 6,845,609,960 and 1,966,514,816 estimated Internet users for June 30, 2010.

Digital Rights

Meta-analysis of Internet filtering surveys:

• Global growth of filtering

• No single country

• Variety of Objectives:

• Political

• Moral

• Commercial

Industrial Policy and Regulation

• IPR: Copyright • IPR: Patents• Competition Policy• Technology-led Industrial Strategies• ICT for Development

Industrial Policy and Regulation

Copyright enforcement:

• ‘Three Strikes’ policy in France• Digital Economy Act (UK)

Countered by:• The Pirate Party• Brazilian Copyright Reform Bill

Copyright Mot

User-Centric Policy

• Child Protection Policy• Decency: Pornography• Libel: Defamation • Prevention of Hate Speech• Consumer Protection: Fraud

Copyright Mugley

Internet Policy• Internet Governance and Regulation• Domain Names and Numbers• Net Neutrality• Licensing, Regulation of Service Providers: Intermediaries• Internationalised Top-level Domain Names

Internet Policy:Standard-setting: Identity

Security

• Secrecy, Confidentiality• Security against Malware• Counter-Radicalisation• National Security

– Blackberry Use– WikiLeaks: Confidentiality-Security

Ecology of Choices Shaping Free Expression

Encouraging Themes for Freedom of Expression

• Internet Empowering Networked Individuals – Enhancing Freedom of Connection and Expression

• Worldwide Diffusion and Expanding Access in More Languages & Scripts enabling Networked Individuals to Find, Share and Create Content

• Major Issues of Human Rights are Increasingly Being Centered on the Internet and Web

• The Internet Space is not the ‘Wild West’

Countervailing Themes

• Freedom of Expression is not an Inevitable Outcome of Technological Innovation

• Continuing Global and Local Digital Divides in Access and the Production of Content

• Global Increase in Content Filtering and Censorship

• Freedom Shaped by Choices in the Wider Ecology of Actors, Objectives and Policies

• Lack Appropriate Models for Internet Governance and Regulation

Directions for Policy

• Reduce Digital Divides • Broaden Perspectives on Freedom of Expression

– the Larger Legal and Regulatory Ecology• Renew and Inform Debates over:

– Appropriate Regulatory Models for the Internet– Global and Local Approaches to Internet Governance– Ways to Inform the Public and Elected Officials about

the Internet and Legal-Regulatory Issues

Renew Research on Freedom of Expression

• Monitor World Wide Internet Filtering in a more Systematic and Sustained Manner

• Track an Expanded Range of Policies and Regulatory Issues in this Ecology

• Critically Explore Relationships between Freedom of Expression and other Core Values and Rights

• Study Impacts on the Ground, including Public Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behavior

• Understand Assaults on Freedom of Expression as efforts to protect other Values and Interests

Presentation for the Launch of the W3C UK & Ireland Office, Keble College, 18 April 2011.

William H. Dutton, Anna Dopatka, Michael Hills, Ginette Law, and Victoria Nash

Oxford Internet Institute,

University of Oxford

Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or its Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace.