Cyberspace has from its beginning generated an intense discussion on its implications for democracy and freedom around the world. Essentially a new medium for free expression by individuals, largely unhampered by the censor of editors or governments, it promised to be the stab in the back of authoritarian governments and closed societies. A new generation of people would grow up in a world where border controls are considered largely obsolete and where new communities with like-minded people can be formed on a daily basis without any regard for physical location. News and ideas would flow around automatically, eradicating traditional information controls.

Hmm, not so fast. Governments are becoming smarter in dealing with the so-called 'social danger' that the Internet poses them. It is not just a matter of notorious censorship and filtering by governments like China or Iran, but it is also increasingly becoming a struggle against governmental attempts to fracture the Internet into national spaces and to fill it up with government rubbish, as a recent article in the New York Times attests.

Cyberspace is still young and growing. For it to live up to its early promises of globalizing freedom, we cannot just let it go and see what happens. Governments need to be called upon to keep their hands off the Internet's content as well as those providing it, particularly bloggers.

Contributions as to what young liberals can do to protect the Internet are welcome in the Comments section below!