Myth and Reality of Freedom of Expression on the Internet

Internet has become one of the important issues that shape freedom of expression in today’s human rights world. From the beginning of the current century, dramatic revolutionary changes have taken place in the media sector, especially; social media are now more dominant than traditional media. The continuous availability of information through the Internet has the possibility of citizens to become more knowledgeable about state affairs, hence, the Internet can effectively enhance the nexus between citizens and state actors. Although there is a serious challenge with respect to freedom of expression on the Internet, which is found to the transitional democracies or even to established democracies in the world. However, this paper is descriptive in nature and aims to examine the impacts and processes of the internet on freedom of expression, and to make an analysis about policy and jurisdictional measures in regards to the Internet, and how they have designed to control freedom of expression across the countries in the world.