Online Liberty and Freedom of Expression

Overview

Led by John Palfrey, this session will expand on some of the core themes introduced in the preceding sessions by focusing on online liberty and freedom of expression and providing an overview of the different phases of content regulation on the Internet. The session will engage the audience with questions regarding the ways in which different political contexts shape different methods of and motivations for government control, and how different approaches in different countries inform each other. Respondents from the audience will be invited to comment on key issues, including different forms of government controls and online speech regulation: China (a mix of “traditional” technical filtering with legal and informal regulatory mechanisms); the Arab Spring (just-in-time filtering combined with the arrest and intimidation of bloggers and digital activists); Russia (mostly non-technical, second and third generation controls rather than technical filtering); and US/Western Europe (mostly focused on child pornography and the illegal spread of copyrighted content); the role of intermediaries in response to government requests for user information, content removal or account deactivation; and the implications of the current phase of control for free expression and privacy worldwide.

Required Readings

Filtering

• John Palfrey, "Four Phases of Internet Regulation" Social Research, Vol. 77, No. 3, Fall 2010.
  • Summary of Four Phases
• Jonathan Zittrain & John Palfrey, "Internet Filtering: The Politics and Mechanisms of Control," Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, (Cambridge: MIT Press) 2008.

Arab Spring

• MENA Net Watch
• Masashi Crete-Nishihata and Jillian York, “Egypt’s Internet Blackout: Extreme Example of Just-in-Time Blocking,” ONI Blog, January 28, 2011.

Recommended Readings

Filtering

• The OpenNet Initiative's Blog
• ONI's China Profile
• ONI's Middle East and North Africa Profiles and News
• ONI's Russia Profile
• ONI's United States and Canada Profile
• ONI's Europe Profile

Arab Spring

• James Cowie, “Egypt Leaves the Internet,” Renesys, January 27, 2011.

Second- and Third-Generation Controls

• Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, “Beyond Denial: Introducing Next Generation Information Access Controls,” Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace, (Cambridge: MIT Press) 2010.

Russia Project

• Bruce Etling, et al., “Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization,” October 18, 2010.