Abstract
The Internet was founded as a technology of freedom ‘for the benefit of scientists, engineers, and their students, with no direct military application in mind’ (Castells, 2001). An analysis of the literature from 2000 to today shows substantial growth in the number of published papers relating to Internet Freedom and Digital Rights, reflecting an emerging field of research. Such papers illustrate that many western societies work on the assumption that a free internet is a ‘good thing’ - but is it? This research analyses how to examine the relationship between the level of the internet ‘freedom’ and a set of ‘good life’ indices – indicators of the welfare of society. We propose a methodology for analysing both correlation and possible causation between freedom of the internet (FOTN) and indicators of the welfare of society, as well as initial hypotheses on the correlations.
Recommended Citation
Tashevtseva, Nataliia; Dreyfus, Suelette; and Parampalli, Udaya, "Is internet freedom good for society?" (2022). ACIS 2022 Proceedings. 47.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2022/47