The Decade that Shook the Open Web

The global internet has accelerated economic growth in many countries, and online-offline movements like #BlackLivesMatter, the Umbrella Movement, #MeToo, and #MarchForOurLives underscore social media’s potential to affect real change in the world. But a series of events since 2010, from large-scale cyberattacks to disinformation campaigns to revelations about global surveillance, have prompted many governments to question whether the benefits of a global and open internet are worth the potential costs. As we look toward the next decade, it is more imperative than ever that democracies work to reconcile tensions in how they govern and reaffirm trust in the global and open internet. Can they protect and uphold civil liberties online while also protecting citizens and businesses from cybersecurity threats? Without substantive, democratic policy changes that do just that, the decade ahead may produce even greater suspicion toward cyberspace than the one now coming to a close.

[Justin Sherman is a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America, a Fellow at the Duke Center on Law & Technology at Duke University’s School of Law, and a senior at Duke University double-majoring in computer science and political science. He is also an Artificial Intelligence Associate at Technology for Global Security.]