In this rapidly expanding internet, the kinds of rights we need are often difficult to pin down – though pin them down we must if they are to be protected.

Article 3 of the Regulation defined the legal foundations of net neutrality in the EU, including the operators' obligation to "treat all traffic equally."

Freedom of expression is fundamentally about power: about who gets to speak or express themselves and on what terms and platforms.

Coalitions of actors – scholars, activists, some politicians, and even some captains of industry, will need to collaborate if the pathway we pursue to a calculated, unequal future is to change.

A visitor to Minsk might conclude from its calm appearance that the human rights situation had changed. But beneath the surface, the invisible threat of surveillance keeps civil society in check.

Human rights should be considered proportionally in any governmental policy related to the Internet, in a way which will hopefully spur the private sector to follow.

Collection, categorisation, and experimentation on people’s data are presented as legitimate because online advertising is funding the free internet. But what about privacy, free expression, and autonomy?

Like everyone else, human rights activists use mobile phones, email and social networks to connect. Unlike most people, they criticise states, challenging their actions. As such, they attract their attention.

Participatory democracy has been hijacked by business-led multistakeholderism, and 'presence and power' are replaced as tokens of people's political involvement.

While the Law and Justice party insists that local disputes are best settled at home, Polish opposition and fearful individuals have been reaching out to international forums for support.

India, according to the Facebook Director, would have been better off had it remained under British rule. Coming from an American, it was a bit ironical.

The hard work is only just beginning, that is the drip, drip, drip of legal, political and intellectual labour to ensure that future generations on this planet get the media and communications they deserve.

Staying visible, not being drowned out by hostile agendas, or captured and then defused by lobbies of every ilk, is a challenge for those defending human rights on the internet.

Corporate actors play no small part in setting this agenda as well, in kind rather than by international treaty, through the proprietary rights of commercial enterprise. 

Are our rights online under threat by our own governments? What real and imagined dangers face citizens at the online-offline nexus? Watch the wide-ranging panel discussion which launched openDemocracy's new 2016 partnership, 'Human rights and the internet'.