The Digital Era 3

5Variations on Network Neutrality

Over the years and with the experience accumulated since the 1990s, when the Internet really took off, the “network of networks” has been widely considered by its users (who have since been called Internet users) as an open international space of free expression. This means that anyone can, in practice, read, write, debate and express themselves on anything and with anyone, with particular thanks to search engines and social networks, and that the network allows them to trade, buy, rent, lend or sell goods or knowledge, without political or legal hindrance, thanks to multiple platforms of free and open access. In addition, those platforms dedicated to travel, visits, stays, work or leisure, facilitate another freedom, that of coming and going, which Internet users appreciate very much.

The use of all these services has spread everywhere considerably, and in a short amount of time. A large number of Internet users aspire to freely enjoy all these opportunities that many now consider as a real asset. Long known as the prerogative of a small minority of privileged people, especially those living in temperate countries, these freedoms now benefit everyone, from Oceania to sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. They opened up unexpected prospects for people who had lived on the margins of modernity up until then. This had unforeseen consequences: the “Arab Spring” episode of 2011 that flourished in North Africa and the Middle East was partly linked ...