Introduction
One of the initial principles of the world wide web, which later turned into “the internet” as we now know it, was the principle of net neutrality. It meant that the Internet Service Provider (ISP) was not allowed to prioritise certain websites over others, protecting, for instance, the national right to free speech. As such, requesting any website should have roughly the same response time, apart from the time delay from the website itself. Altogether blocking a service – for various reasons, such as digital piracy, pornographic content, and other activities considered illegal by nations – is prohibited in many, but definitely not all states.
More recently, states have taken an interest in controlling the digital content available to their citizens. Both for sociocultural, economic, and geopolitical reasons, a state might wish to block access to certain content. The Conference is tasked with providing a legal framework for both assuring net neutrality as well as controlling the access to illicit internet content.