Foreword
The Internet is the operating system of global politics. Ideas, messages, news, information,
and money ricochet around the world in minutes, crossing time zones and borders in real
time. Charities, banks, corporations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and terrorist organizations all use the Internet to do business, to organize, and to speed communications. Internet technology is implicated in almost everything done in world politics today.
But the Internet is not the free operating zone that its early proponents expected. Contrary
to conventional wisdom, states have shown an increased willingness to intervene to control
communication through the Internet. And they have done so with precision and effectiveness.
At the beginning of the decade, few were aware of the scale of the problem. Advocacy and
rights organizations charged that a handful of countries were blocking access to Web sites,
but they had little evidence to support their claims. Good empirical knowledge of the scope
of the problem did not exist.
Four years ago, a group of scholars at the University of Toronto, Harvard, and Cambridge
(Oxford joined later) came together to begin systematic research on patterns of Internet censorship and surveillance worldwide. At the time, the project seemed very ambitious. The
researchers proposed to put together a combination of contextual political and legal research
and technical interrogations of the Internet in the countries under investigation. It relied heavily
on the work of partners working in the countries where governments were engaged in active
censorship. The project was extraordinarily challenging; in almost every case, the research
implied a direct threat to national security and put researchers’ personal safety at risk.
The project was ambitious in other ways as well. A transatlantic collaboration among four
universities is difficult to manage at the best of times, but the ONI includes dozens of
researchers and collaboration with nongovernmental, rights, and advocacy organizations all
over the world. The project is also truly interdisciplinary. It involves sociologists, lawyers, international relations scholars, political scientists, and some of the world’s most skilled computer
programmers.
From 2003 to 2006, the ONI collaboration paid handsome dividends. It has produced
eleven major country reports, reports that revealed a startling trend. States were aggressively
finding ways to filter and control access to information for citizens within their borders. The
reports were detailed, supported by strong evidence that had an immediate impact on policy
worldwide. The ONI’s China report was delivered before two U.S. congressional committees
and was featured in newspapers and on television around the world. The reports highlighted
The Internet is the operating system of global politics. Ideas, messages, news, information,
and money ricochet around the world in minutes, crossing time zones and borders in real
time. Charities, banks, corporations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and terrorist organizations all use the Internet to do business, to organize, and to speed communications. Internet technology is implicated in almost everything done in world politics today.
But the Internet is not the free operating zone that its early proponents expected. Contrary
to conventional wisdom, states have shown an increased willingness to intervene to control
communication through the Internet. And they have done so with precision and effectiveness.
At the beginning of the decade, few were aware of the scale of the problem. Advocacy and
rights organizations charged that a handful of countries were blocking access to Web sites,
but they had little evidence to support their claims. Good empirical knowledge of the scope
of the problem did not exist.
Four years ago, a group of scholars at the University of Toronto, Harvard, and Cambridge
(Oxford joined later) came together to begin systematic research on patterns of Internet censorship and surveillance worldwide. At the time, the project seemed very ambitious. The
researchers proposed to put together a combination of contextual political and legal research
and technical interrogations of the Internet in the countries under investigation. It relied heavily
on the work of partners working in the countries where governments were engaged in active
censorship. The project was extraordinarily challenging; in almost every case, the research
implied a direct threat to national security and put researchers’ personal safety at risk.
The project was ambitious in other ways as well. A transatlantic collaboration among four
universities is difficult to manage at the best of times, but the ONI includes dozens of
researchers and collaboration with nongovernmental, rights, and advocacy organizations all
over the world. The project is also truly interdisciplinary. It involves sociologists, lawyers, international relations scholars, political scientists, and some of the world’s most skilled computer
programmers.
From 2003 to 2006, the ONI collaboration paid handsome dividends. It has produced
eleven major country reports, reports that revealed a startling trend. States were aggressively
finding ways to filter and control access to information for citizens within their borders. The
reports were detailed, supported by strong evidence that had an immediate impact on policy
worldwide. The ONI’s China report was delivered before two U.S. congressional committees
and was featured in newspapers and on television around the world. The reports highlighted