The Future of Speech Online: International Cooperation for a Free & Open Internet

In time, these pendulum swings have come to a resting point through a combination of the normalization of the technologies in society, the development of commonly understood norms and standards, and the imposition of guardrails through regulation. [...] The authoritarian internet model–with citizens segregated from the rest of the global internet and subject to extensive surveillance and censorship–is on the rise, presenting a real risk to the open, accessible internet as we know it. [...] Unlike the historical era in which the internet was developed–the 1990s and early 2000s–in which the liberal para- 153 (3) Summer 2024 67 The Future of Speech Online: International Cooperation for a Free & Open Internet digm of the internet was taken for granted, today we have competing visions that aim to shape the standards and norms of the next generation of transformative technologies. [...] The announcement of an agreement to protect open data flows between the United States and the Euro- pean Union is a necessary step, as are the principles enshrined in the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet” announced by the Biden administration and signed by dozens of governments in 2021.12 We need concrete actions to follow. [...] However, given the growing geopolitical chasm between the United States and the European Union on one side and China and Russia on the other, it may be wish- ful thinking to imagine the creation of meaningful new multilateral global institu- tions–the Bretton Woods moment and postwar institutions were made possible by the destruction of the Axis powers, and no such total victory over authoritarian.