Dan Bateyko
Middlebury College
Project
Advocates, Bloggers and Trolls: Exploring Barriers to Internet Freedom
China,South Korea,The Netherlands,Germany,
Ghana,Russia
From the Hong Kong protests to the rise of big data, the internet is upending the ways we create and access information. However, internet users often cannot speak freely. They regularly face unprecedented economic obstacles to access, government-imposed limits to content, and peer violations of their rights to communicate. What struggles do internet users face accessing the internet and publishing? How do local movements engage with citizens to surmount these problems? For my Watson year, I will explore local reactions to free speech barriers online. By traveling to countries with diverse internet cultures, unique free speech regimes, and atypical internet infrastructure, I hope to learn more about how global netizens understand their internet rights. In each country, I will interview engaged bloggers as well as ‘trolls’ about their experiences using the web. By speaking with digital rights advocates about initiatives to bring internet freedom to their countries, I hope to broaden my understanding of the global fight to protect the digital commons.