ABSTRACT
In the early days of the internet, there was a widespread assumption that it was a censor-free zone. This was rapidly disproved by the way in which authoritarian societies, particularly China, managed to block and filter it within their own geographical spaces, and even in democratic societies there was distinct unease about some of the material to be found on this new carrier of information. This chapter shows how, in democracies, internet regulation (of which censorship is a constituent part) is increasingly carried out in a delegated fashion via intermediaries such as Internet Service Providers and co-regulatory bodies of one kind or another. The problem with such systems is their lack of openness, accountability and judicial process, as this chapter demonstrates in two case studies. This puts them at odds with the principles for internet regulation which have been built up by bodies such as UNESCO and the Council of Europe.
