The Interplay between National Security and Freedom of Expression Online in the Post-Soviet Countries

For his study, the researcher selected a group of post-Soviet countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries morphed into quite different sovereign states, with different centres of global attractions and alliances. In the present work the author tested his hypothesis that regardless of individual historical paths − and despite differences in evolving political and institutional regimes − there exists a commonality of Internet regulation practices that is shared by most of the countries in question. To set the stage, this work presents the research design and methodology before moving on to describe the context in the post-Soviet region. Next, the work takes a detour from the analysis of regional characteristics to introduce the definitions of national security, terrorism, extremism and the interplay of these issues with the principle of freedom of expression. The research further explores the way emerging Internet technologies changed the playing field when it comes to the expression of views that are legally acceptable, however, potentially could be causing a threat to national security. The author then outlines the existing good practices, drawing mostly upon the experiences of the ‘old’ democracies, before moving on to explore case studies conducted in the post-Soviet space. The scope of legislative interventions in the countries of the region is examined through the lens of the legitimisation of disputable practices of curtailing free online expression and the methods employed. It should be noted that the hypothesis involving the commonality of legislative interventions is only partially corroborated. Still, the author identified a number of initiatives that legislators of the countries under scrutiny could implement to align their respective legislature with the best practices of online regulation, based on the premises of legality, legitimacy, and proportionality as regards restrictions to freedom of expression.