Never in the history of mankind has so much information been controlled by so few.
Such concentration of power poses a serious threat to our democratic values, to undistorted competition, growth and national security as well as to cultural diversity and state sovereignty.
The application of sovereign laws to the internet invariably faces the challenge of extraterritoriality despite Voltaire’s famous words on the universality of values:
“The sentiment of justice is so natural, and so universally acquired by all mankind, that it seems to be independent of all law, all party, all religion.”.
It has become clear that defamation, denigration, internet stalking, trolls, hate porn and other forms of persecution of individuals over the internet cause nightmarish suffering to their victims.
These victims represent all age groups. However, internet stalking seems to be a problem mainly affecting children and adolescents.
Lawlessness and lack of accountability on the internet much too often lead to human suffering, stifling of freedom of speech ( see « Journalistic Freedom »), loss of the right to legal representation (see « Legal Representation ») and anti-competitive behavior to the detriment ultimately of consumers.
In addition, there is scientific consensus on the correlation between radicalization and internet content.
The following report which was commissioned by UNESCO for the conference that took place in Quebec on October 31st/November1st 2016 on radicalization analyses the phenomenon of online radicalization from a legal perspective and includes specific policy recommendations.
Read the report in pdf format here: http://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/rapport_dan_shefet.pdf
A short abstract on the report is available here.
Finally, the impact of the internet on the democratic processes by way of spreading fake new and manipulating voters is a growing concern which puts the very fabric of representative government at risk.