Reinventing the Internet: A political protocol to protect the Internet, and where to find it

[Commentary] In the case of the Internet, the most effective response to repressions will occur beyond the realm of governments. This is true on the level of technical protocols, where privacy tools like TOR developed by nonprofit groups working across states, are helping people access the Internet free of surveillance.

Many of the most promising political tools are, perhaps surprisingly, coming from the legal and policy departments of technology companies like Google and Twitter. The so-called “Transparency Reports” they issue serve as flares to warn where and how governments are suppressing the Internet, and the legal challenges they are deploying in Turkey are serving to slow, if not check, censorship activities.

Meanwhile, civil society groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are also active in distributing privacy tools, and in energizing online populations around the world to stand up for free Internet communication and to talk to each other across national boundaries.

Finally, the media -- in all its forms -- will have an essential role in ensuring the political protocol of the Internet stays open and free. The very act of reporting, by a giant TV company or a brave single blogger, reinforces the idea that speech and discussion is not limited to national boundaries and that the Internet belongs to people, not governments.