The “Dubai Clash” at WCIT-12: Freedom of Information, Access Rights, and Cyber Security

Critical decisions regarding the future of the internet, or internets, are upon us. In his seminal book published in 2008, entitled The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It, Professor Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School laid out the core dilemma behind these decisions. On the one hand, the ubiquity of the world wide web, the richness of its resources, and the ease of access and transmission of information it provides for 2.7 billion people – which Zittrain calls the “generative internet” – have been determined by the web’s original chaotic and largely unregulated design. On the other hand, governments and inter-governmental organizations have become deeply challenged by the internet’s freewheeling, “wild west” nature, and the facility with which it is leveraged for illicit activities, including costly cybercrime, due to the absence of multilateral, normative frameworks. In the name of increasing cyber security concerns, and lacking effective global agreement on legal and policy parameters, governments have begun to regulate both content and access on their own. This pattern is at best counterproductive, and at worst harmful and disruptive, given the global interoperability and interdependence of the internet.