Internet Content Regulations

There are two problems with line of thinking for internet content regulations:

1) First, it is not self-evident that Internet content regulation should be "democratic" at all. "Democratic" basically means the will of the majority. A global majority, or a collection of national governments, are not known for their devotion to abstract principles of tolerance and free expression. They are much more likely to be politically mobilized by a desire to suppress or regulate some kind of expression that angers or provokes them at any given moment. Most free expression supporters don't recognize the right of a majority to suppress expression they don't like simply because they are in a majority. Indeed, most Western countries are constitutional democracies where a wide range of liberal freedoms are put outside the reach of democratic majorities for precisely this reason.



2) Second, most discussions of inserting “public policy” concerns into Internet content regulation do not take account of the heterogeneous values and institutional deficit at the global level. If regulation of content should not be delegated to a private sector entity, then by process of elimination the suggestion is that it should be left to governments. But which governments? Which nation’s culture, which nation’s "majority" will decide this? National governments are all limited and territorial in their scope. None of them can claim a democratic mantle at the global level.