Controlling the net: European approaches to content and access regulation

Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

Organizations, national governments and supranational bodies have all been active in formulating measuresto regulate access to internet content. This paper reports the findings of a documentary analysis of such meas-ures adopted over a 10-year period by the European Union. The investigation took place from a perspectiveof concern for the potential impact of such initiatives on freedom of expression and freedom of enquiry. Ona theoretical level, the study adopted Lessig's models of direct and indirect regulation as an analyticalframework. The Habermasian concept of the erosion of the Public Sphere was used as an analogy for theissues posed by the regulation of speech on the internet. It is argued that the findings of the study suggest thatthe democratizing potential of the internet is indeed being constrained by measures imposed in an attemptto control the perceived dangers posed by the medium.

Key Words: content regulation, European Union, policy studies, freedom of expression, Habermas, public sphere.

First published on March 23, 2007, doi:10.1177/0165551506072163

Journal of Information Science 2007;33:360.

A more recent version of this article appeared on June 1, 2007


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