New Social Rights and Internet: Which Policies Combine Them?

This article is divided into two parts. The first deals with the regulating models of the Internet’s freedoms, and considers the automatic implementation of rules concerning off line rights, the absence of any rule whatsoever, or the creation of ones porous to the technical specifications of the means, but observing system guarantees. The second discusses whether and how to regulate the Internet. The author challenges the myth of uncontrolled self-regulation sensitive to the sole interests of “private governments”, in favour of a streamlined public presence, so as to prove decisive on the issues of Internet governance and the hierarchy of law’s sources. The red thread between the two parts unravels in the consideration of the individuation of supra-national values, the Internet’s democratic nature, and the effectiveness of new rights necessary for technological progress benefitting everybody, not only those already enjoying a commanding position in economic competition or democratic activity.