ABSTRACT
Balancing has swiftly emerged as the dominant discursive practice for reacting to conflicts of competing fundamental rights in the digital dimension. This chapter explores the question of ontic and epistemic justifiability of balancing on the internet in horizontal relationships by private online companies, and proposes a mathematical formula for balancing conflicting fundamental rights in the digital dimension. It demonstrates that the Internet Balancing Formula contains certain ontic and epistemic elements which minimise the strength of arguments usually raised against balancing as a general generic fundamental rights concept or balancing by private entities on the internet in particular. The chapter discusses the Internet Balancing Formula will increase the rational element of balancing online. It considers that the doctrine of the sameness of rights online and offline can be justifiable. There are two main concerns related to the epistemic dimension of balancing online, which concern first, the way information is gathered, and second, how it is assessed.
