From Turkey, talking to lots of people about the future of Internet filtering, I’m struck by the value of a broad, public debate about what kind of a network we want the Internet to become over time. There are decisions, made on a daily basis, by dozens of states around the world, that affect the outcome of this question.
I recall having this same sense at our first, big ONI conference in Oxford in 2007. In a break-out session, a group of us talked about what the best international response would be to the trend in the data that we at ONI released last May as to the growth and change in Internet filtering around the world.
– Is Silicon Valley not just wiring the world, but rather *barbed-wiring* the world? We are vesting too much power in too few hands.
– Kinds of responses might be governmental or non-governmental: Within each category, there might be a lot of options for regulation, different types and methods.
– A multi-prong solution: no one technology will bring free expression to Tunisia, nor bring down the firewall in China. 1) Tools, technologies in hands of activists (of the sorts that we have seen, with Psiphon, and then made accessible. Innovation with existing tools would be best.
– Can innovation beget innovation in regulation?
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