What happened to the idea of a free internet?
We have been living in the Internet age for almost thirty years. Most of the world's population is under the age of thirty, so for the average person this era is all he or she has known. But for those of us who can remember life before the Internet, it's clear how much has changed in those three short decades. We've lost more than just the plaintive tones of forgotten dial-up modems; In fact, the way we think about the Internet has changed. If the early days of the Internet were marked by boundless, almost giddy optimism, the current Internet is much more likely to be viewed with weary cynicism at best. At worst, many of us β including most of our politicians and media β talk about the Internet with a tone of outright distrust.
Every year, the charity Freedom House examines the state of global internet freedom. And last month's Freedom On The Net 2023 report found that internet freedoms worldwide declined in 2023 β for the thirteenth year in a row.
After all the years of decline and all the negative talk about the Internet, it seems strange today to see the Internet as a force for good, for liberation. Yet that was the original vision of the founders of the Internet. Where did it all go wrong, and what happened to the forgotten dream of a free internet?
A new hope
If you can, think back to the dawn of the Internet age.
Under the neon glow of mid-nineties prosperity and the defiant sounds of hip-hop beats, one could discern hopeful changes. The idea was that the Internet would set us free: not only would it build bridges across oceans, continents and worldviews, but we would all be given the keys to a vast repository of information, the largest library in the world.
Perhaps the most utopian hope for the early Internet, coming just decades after the horrors of European fascism and World War II, was that this new tool would become a shield against authoritarianism. Certainly, it seemed that the Internet would allow ordinary citizens to bypass state censorship and expose the atrocities of tyrants.
Some optimists even dared to hope that the Internet, in the hands of a free and informed global population, could even spell the end of authoritarianism as we know it. As long as the tyrants didn't get there first.
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The rich strike back
Spoiler alert: thirty years later, the internet still exists, but so does authoritarianism.
Authoritarian states have always sought to control the information their citizens have access to, and so a free internet β one without borders or blinders β has always been viewed with suspicion by those with the most to lose. In this case, that means authoritarian governments and freedom-skeptical politicians of all stripes. Since those early days, governments have taken steps to restrict Internet use in various ways. Some states have even returned the Internet to its users, transforming this supposedly emancipatory technology into a way to spy on innocent citizens.
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, watched in horror as his greatest creation was twisted by the forces it was designed to defeat. He has argued that the internet is increasingly restricted by governments around the world, and in 2014 called for an 'online Magna Carta' to safeguard the idea of ββthe internet as an 'open' and 'neutral' platform.
It is Berners-Lee's belief that governments 'have a responsibility to protect people's rights and freedoms online'. But in general, governments fail their citizens by ignoring this responsibility. If anything, government restrictions are getting worse, which explains why so many of us have let our hopes for a free internet fade.
A growing threat
In the three decades of the Internet age, we have seen glimpses of the Internet's hopeful potential, but the trend is that the optimism of its early days is gradually being eroded by state censorship and Internet abuse. The Arab Spring briefly flared up in the early 2010s as evidence of the emancipatory power of the internet. As citizens across the Arab world took to the streets to protest the authoritarianism and corruption in their governments, many looked to social media as the touchstone that had made these protests possible. But since then, there has been little optimism about the Internet's ability to make the world a freer and fairer place. And with good reason β as the internet itself has gradually become less free and fair over that time.
Of course, it is easy to blame this trend on clearly authoritarian states: Russia, for example, which forbids its citizens from learning about the invasion of Ukraine, or China's policy of sweeping internet restrictions β known as the Great Firewall.
Yet internet freedom is also declining in Europe. Freedom House found that there was no European country where the internet became freer in the past year. Even liberal democracies β including the United Kingdom β routinely block citizens from accessing online content due to concerns about foreign interference, disinformation and online safety.
Free speech activists have also spoken out against the UK's Online Safety Bill, which came into force in October. Critics say the bill threatens human rights, with freedom of expression charity Article 19 claiming the new law 'undermines privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of information online'. The bill could, among other things, result in companies such as WhatsApp having to hand over encrypted messages to the government. WhatsApp has threatened to leave Britain before it ends its long-standing policy of securing users' messages with end-to-end encryption.
While legislation such as the Online Safety Bill is often (or at least ostensibly) motivated by legitimate concerns β in this case the welfare of young and vulnerable internet users β restricting the freedoms of law-abiding citizens cannot be seen as a solution to modern social issues. issues. It sounds radical to say it, in this age of techno-pessimism, but internet users need more freedom β not less.
Return of the free internet
Despite the atmosphere of doom and gloom that surrounds the internet, it's important to remember that not all is lost.
Many activists, founders and citizens still believe in the liberating power of the internet. And there are still ways we can catch the fragile flame of online freedom and encourage it to burn as brightly as the internet's founders intended.
Fortunately, there are tools that citizens can use to circumvent state censorship. And there are those of us who would use these tools to reverse the trend of declining internet freedom.
VPN providers are at the forefront of the battle to get the internet back on track. Their products enable Internet users to regain their power and reclaim the original idea of ββa free and open web.
In most areas, VPNs are completely legal, allowing Internet users to protect their privacy while browsing and access geo-restricted online content. Many internet freedom activists see VPNs as the best way to rediscover the hopeful promise of the Internet and reverse a sad trend of declining freedom.
We at hide.me agree. But more than that, we still believe in the promise of the Internet as a world without borders, a means of frictionless communication and unfettered access to information for everyone. And as the Internet age enters its fourth decade, it has never been more important to stand up for that liberating spirit.
As we rediscover the vision and optimism of the Internet's past, there is still time to secure the free Internet of the future.
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This article was produced as part of Ny BreakingPro's Expert Insights channel, where we profile the best and brightest minds in today's technology industry. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Ny BreakingPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing, you can read more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro