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52 Emory L.J. 187 (2003)
Freedom of Expression, Democratic Norms, and Internet Governance

handle is hein.journals/emlj52 and id is 199 raw text is: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, DEMOCRATIC NORMS, AND INTERNET GOVERNANCE Dawn C. Nunziato* I. INTRODUCTION Within a decade, the Internet has transformed from an obscure medium for the exchange of military and scientific data to a global medium of mass communication and expression of all kinds. As speech on the Internet has become increasingly important, a number of governments have made well- publicized and widely criticized attempts to control it. Not as well-publicized or as well-analyzed are the speech-regarding policies of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that has been governing the Internet's infrastructure for the last five years. In the agreement under which it gained its current powers, ICANN assured the United States that it would govern the Internet's infrastructure democratically and would implement governance structures to take into account the interests of affected Internet users around the world. In particular, ICANN promised to conduct worldwide elections of representatives to its decision-making bodies and to embody deliberative and representative democratic structures. While ICANN has acknowledged the importance of implementing such procedural democratic norms, it has failed to acknowledge that the ideals of democratic governance encompass substantive norms, such as protection for freedom of expression. Nor has ICANN acknowledged that any of its policies implicate free speech. In this Article, I challenge both components of the prevailing ideology- that ICANN's governance of the Internet's infrastructure does not threaten free * Associate Professor, The George Washington University Law School. B.A., M.A. (Philosophy), J.D., University of Virginia. I have benefited from presenting earlier drafts of this Article at the Conference on New Technologies and International Governance sponsored by the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the Wharton Legal Studies Research Colloquium, and The George Washington University Law School Works-in-Progress series. I am also very grateful for the assistance of Robert Brauneis, David Epstein, Ellen P. Goodman, Todd Peterson, David Post, Roger Schechter, Robert Tuttle, and the library and research assistance of Leonard Klein, Kiyoshi Tsuru, and Stephen Soltanzadeh. All web sites referenced herein were last visited February 1, 2003.

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