Freedom of Speech and the Internet

It is unquestionable that the Internet has changed the world. It has opened doors and global pathways that never existed before and has made the world a smaller place. With the Internet, things once deemed impossible are possible. The Arab Spring, the rise of instant millionaires and celebrities of previous “no names”, the power of a voice to change and move governments, companies and people. The small ideas such as the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” a social media phenomenon that started with one person and went viral raising an unprecedented millions of dollars for charity. The Internet has become so engrained and so much a part of our lives it is almost unimaginable to not have access to it.

Yet out of the estimated 2.7 billion users worldwide of the Internet, a shocking one-third of these users do not have free, uncensored access per Google’s Senior Policy Analyst Ben Blink. Millions of people are denied the basic human right of the freedom of speech on the Internet. They can’t comment, they can’t “like”, they can’t post pictures, they can’t write, they can’t blog, and they can’t freely search the Internet without censorship.

Global Issues SOCIAL GOOD