Freedom of Connection – Freedom of Expression: The Future Internet in the Larger Legal-Regulatory Ecology

Presentation for the SESERV and Knetworks Seminar and Workshop, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, 28 June 2011.

William H. Dutton

Oxford Internet Institute (OII)

University of Oxford

 

UNESCO Request to Critically Review Status of Research on Freedom of Expression:

• Some Pioneering Studies• More Advocacy v Research• Politically Sensitive (e.g., the McBride Commission established in 1977)

• Too Narrowly Focused, e.g., Internet Content Filtering

The Internet Reconfigures Access in Ways that Can Empower Networked Individualsand Frighten Governments

Ecology of Choices Shaping Free Expression

Technical Innovations: Technologies of Disconnection

Meta-analysis of Internet filtering surveys:

• Global growth of filtering

• No single country

• Variety of Objectives:

• Political • Moral• Commercial

BUT: Potential to Decentralize, e.g., Home Hubs

Percentage of Internet Users Across Regions of the World

Regions as Percentage of the Worldwide Population of Users

Digital Rights

• Access – Freedom of Connection

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

• Collaboration of OII, INSEAD, and comScore for the World Economic Forum (WEF)

• Online Global Survey • Completed by 5,400 Adult Internet Users • Conducted from Oct-Nov 2010• 13 countries: Australia/New Zealand, Brazil,

Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom

The Global Internet Values Project*

*Dutta, S., Dutton, W. H. and Law, G. (2011), The New Internet World: A Global Perspective on Freedom of Expression, Privacy, Trust and Security Online. New York: The World Economic Forum, April. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1810005

_x0007_ Mexico

_x0007_ Brazil

_x000d_ South Africa

_x0006_ Italy

_x0003_ UK

_x0008_ Germany

_x0016_ Australia/New Zealand

_x0002_US

_x0006_ India

_x0006_ Spain

_x0007_ Canada

_x0007_ France

_x0005_China

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

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21%

Figure 1. "Access to the Internet should be a fundamental right for all people."

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neither agree or disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

IND MEX ZAF UK USA AUS/NZ

USA BRA CHN ITA CAN ESP FRA GER0%

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67% 67%

63%

58%56% 56% 56% 55% 55% 54%

52%

47% 46%44%

Figure 6. Percentage of Respondents who Support Freedom of Expression Online

Percentage of respondents who agree or strongly agree with the following questions related to freedom of ex -pression:

-"It is ok for people to express their ideas on the Inter-net, even if they are extreme."- "People should be able to express their opinion an-onymously on the Internet."- "I feel that I can express myself freely online.-"People should be free to criticize their government on the Internet."

IND ZAF MEX CHN BRA ITA ESP FRA US CAN GER UK AUS/NZ

0%

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7%11%

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77% 78% 79%83% 83%

67%63%

67%

55% 55% 54%

47% 46%

56%52%

44%

58%56%

Figure 7. Support for Freedom of Expression According to In-ternet Diffusion

% of population online (2010)

Percentage of respondents who agree or strongly agree with the following questions re-lated to online freedom of expression:

Countries in order of Internet Diffusion

-"It is ok for people to express their ideas on the Internet, even if they are extreme."- "People should be able to express their opinion an-onymously on the Internet."- "I feel that I can express myself freely online.-"People should be free to criticize their government on the Internet."

Emerging Pattern of Findings Supporting Conception of a ‘New Internet World’

User-Centric Policy

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

Copyright Mugley

Industrial Policy and Regulation

• Technology-led Industrial Strategies, support economic growth• ICT for Development (ICT4D)• Competition Policy

• IPR: Copyright • IPR: Patents

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 Support for Expression in a New Internet World

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

• The Internet Space is not the ‘Wild West’ – much regulation exists

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

• Use of Inappropriate Models for Internet Governance and Regulation threatens to Foster ‘Over-Regulation’, e.g., fear or complacency of the ‘Old Internet World’

The Social Nature of Technical Choices?

• Technologies of Connection• Technologies of Disconnection • Will Freedom of Expression – Connection

Prevail?• What Social Concerns Will Shape the

Future Internet?