The Internet of the early 21st century is marked by an explosion of digital-social communities and a race to upload our collective lives and experiences. In the dust are the remains of the public's right to free speech. This book closes a knowledge gap between the fundamental technical design of the Internet and the consequences on free speech for everyday users.

Telling the story of free speech on the Internet, from its beginnings as the U.S. Government-backed ARPANET to the rise of Internet Service Providers and the establishment of federal regulation by the FCC, Dean charts how the public may have lost its right to free speech on the Internet. In recent years, net neutrality politics have favored corporate interests at the expense of the everyday user's free and open access to the Internet, while AI has accelerated the privatization of user-generated content through unlicensed re-use of intellectual property for big tech profits.

By analyzing relevant cases, such as those where social media users are warned, banned, or even jailed for exercising what they believe to be free speech in social media posts, the book reveals a constant battle that everyday users must face to find public spaces online to exercise their right to free speech. Looking to the Internet's future, Dean empowers everyday users to approach the Internet with a new perspective, with ways to protect intellectual property, places to expect and bolster free speech, and policies that could be implemented to return the public Internet to its rightful owners.