Abstract
Access Contested is the Open Net Initiative's (ONI) follow-up to the 2010 Access Controlled. Whereas the earlier book focused on Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development states, the focus of Access Contested has shifted to Asia, where the contest for rights and freedoms in cyberspace has intensified as governments across the region recognise and respond to emerging challenges (realised, potential and imagined). Fortunately, the editors ignored their own problematic assertion that ‘cyberspace can be viewed as an undifferentiated whole’ (p. 5) to assemble a stellar cast of regional specialists and internet scholars. And despite the dominant position of China in debates about control and resistance among Asian cases, the editors manage an excellent balance of pan-Asian pieces focusing on specific aspects of contestation, in addition to a range of case studies on Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, the Philippines and Malaysia (as well as China). These studies do an admirable job of examining specific forms of control and resistance that have ‘created a unique regional story around the contests to shape cyberspace’ (p. 5).
Based on the analysis of internet filtering globally, the editors identify four phases of access and regulation: the open commons (to 2000), access denied (2000–5), access controlled (2005–10) and access contested (2010 onwards). This schema is convenient (particularly for publication purposes), but the reality is rather less neat, and the editors rightly acknowledge that, certainly in the Asian cases under investigation here, the behaviours underpinning each of these periods continue to occur contemporaneously.
The major characteristic of the period which is the focus of this book is that ‘the contest over access has burst into the open’ (p. 14), with greater visibility for open internet advocates among civil society and commercial interests, and the state and other commercial actors who are increasingly committed to developing and refining ‘offensive actions in cyberspace against adversaries’ (p. 15). As the case studies demonstrate, contestation over the forms and nature of internet regulation is being played out across societies, in diverse settings and on many different issues, prompting the editors to identify ‘a watershed moment for the future of cyberspace'.
The collection is certainly worth the attention of readers interested in contemporary developments in East Asia.