In his new paper, Alexandre de Streel contrasts the Internet libertarian John-Perry Barlow's famous "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" from 1996 with the European Union's "Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade" from 2022 and the "Declaration on the Future of the Internet", which has been signed by more than 70 countries.

To ensure that platforms comply with those newly affirmed EU digital rights and principles, the EU adopted in 2022 two important laws: the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aim to increase contestability and fairness in EU digital markets, thereby contributing to the freedom of choice,  and the Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to reduce illegal (and to a lesser extend harmful) content and products on the Internet.

In his paper, Alexandre de Streel asks whether the new EU laws will be better than a cyberspace left alone, focusing on the Digital Markets Act. He analyzes the nature of the DMA (building on earlier work with Pierre Larouche) and shows that it is a pro-competitive regulation which aims to create, in the words of Barlow, ‘a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by economic power’. He then goes on to analyze whether the DMA could lead to an Internet renaissance.

In this session of the Guarini Colloquium: Regulating Global Digital Corporations, we will be joined by Professor de Streel to discuss his new paper.