Net Freedom: Emerging Norm?

Marietje Schaake, Member of the European Parliament, dropped in on NDI yesterday. I'm a huge fan, though I first came across Marietje on Twitter just a couple weeks ago; thanks in large part to her efforts, the EU is now going to make Net Freedom a plank of their foreign policy. There were a lot of folks at NDI eager to talk to the MP; in her role on the Foreign Affairs committee she works on Iran, Turkey and Egypt in addition to her efforts on Internet-related topics, but with a bit of sweet-talking the boss I got to join the party. Marietje first got to know NDI as a member of the international observers mission monitoring the Nigerian elections.

Official recognition and promotion of net freedom is a critically important step forward for the EU and for those who, like our team, feel that the freedom to speak, associate and organize is just as fundamental a right online as it is in the physical world. The United States has been vigerously pushing net freedom in its foreign policy since Secretary Clinton's seminal 2010 speech, but there hasn't been a lot of additional top-level support from other advanced democracies around the world.

Without widespread support from other diplomatic heavy hitters around the world, the universal concept of online rights runs the risk of being tied too tightly to a specifically American foreign policy, and as such brushed off by authoritarian regimes as some new form of US imperialism. As the countries in the EU begin emphasising this critical idea, I hope to see others follow their leadership. With concerted efforts from governments concerned about human rights and democracy, net freedom will emerge as a new global norm and make the work of online activists that much easier.