Relevance to Internet Governance: A commitment to advancing internet freedom must guide the work of internet governance, because only a free and open internet can serve as a tool for political, economic, and social empowerment. In order to develop and advance a set of policies that protect and expand respect digital rights — the constitutive elements of internet freedom — around the world, the stakeholders involved in internet governance require an empirical way of measuring global internet freedom along with up-to-date information about the state of digital rights. This session and the Freedom on the Net survey aim to meet these needs.
Relevance to Theme: This session has special relevance to the Trust, Democracy, and Media subtheme of the Trust theme. The internet freedom issues highlighted in Freedom of the Net, such as digital divides, dis- and misinformation in the online public square, invasive state surveillance, and cyberattacks from nonstate actors, diminish users' trust in in democracy and the media. Identifying and tackling these issues is critical to restoring that trust, which is necessary for the realization of information technology's democratizing potential.