SPECIAL COLLECTION OF THE CASE LAW ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION Introduction The Internet, and the challenges to its regulation, are the subject of heated discussions in intergovernmental fora, chatrooms, business negotiations, and in national parliaments. These times require an examination of the existing arguments, that are often sourced in international law and court decisions. While some principles, mostly those based on human rights, stay intact, others have become dated, inadequate, and obsolete. What is clear though is that access to the internet is widely recognized today as an indispensable enabler of a broad range of human rights, particularly, freedom of expression and freedom of information which remain essential for democratic societies. But, as digitalization advances, it is also central to the realization of the rights to education, freedom of association and assembly, participation in social, cultural, and political life, health, to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, an adequate standard of living, work, and to social and economic development, to name just a few.1 There is also no doubt that the internet and modern technologies have expanded individuals’ and groups’ ability to receive and impart information and they have dramatically increased the range and diversity of information they can access. This has led to increased calls among stakeholders to recognize internet access as a human right.2 In fact, some countries have already recognized internet access as such, like Estonia, France, Finland, and Costa Rica.3 This has eventually given rise to the idea of “freedom of internet”, a concept that welcomes the booming online services as enabling human rights online, regardless of frontiers. Internet freedom is understood as the “exercise and enjoyment on the Internet of human rights and fundamental freedoms and their protection” in adherence with international human rights instruments.4 It also promotes the right to access to the internet and similar services, self-regulation by internet users, protection from governmental interference, and net neutrality. Yet, a discussion over internet freedom necessitates a closer look into the corresponding challenges 1 See: Internet shutdowns: trends, causes, legal implications and impacts on a range of human rights. Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 13 May 2022, A/HRC/50/55, Para 7, https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ ahrc5055-internet-shutdowns-trends-causes-legal-implications-and-impacts; U.N. Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Koumbou Boly Barry on Impact of Digitization on the Right to Education (19 April 2022), para 28, A/HRC/50/32, https:// www.undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FHRC%2F50%2F32&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False 2 Reglitz, M. (2020). The human right to free Internet access. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 37(2), 314-331. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12395; Çalı, B. (2020). The Case for the Right to Meaningful Access to the Internet as a Human Right in International Law. In A. Von Arnauld, K. Von der Decken, & M. Susi (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of New Human Rights: Recognition, Novelty, Rhetoric (pp. 276-284). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108676106.022; Internet Rights & Principles Coalition, ‘Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet’, 4th eds 2014 (UN Internet Governance Forum) https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/ Issues/Opinion/Communications/InternetPrinciplesAndRightsCoalition.pdf 3 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression on key trends and challenges to the right of all individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through the Internet, 16 May 2011, A/HRC/17/27, Para 65, https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/a.hrc.17.27_en.pdf 4 See, e.g. Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)5[1] of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member States on Internet freedom (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 April 2016 at the 1253rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies), https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/ result_details.aspx?ObjectId=09000016806415fa 7