Proposals to curb online speech viewed as threat to open Internet

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: An Internet cafe in Havana. Most Cubans lack Internet access at home, but many hope this will change after the United States offered to bolster the communist island

SAN FRANCISCO/TORONTO: At least a dozen countries are considering or have enacted laws restricting online speech, a trend that is alarming policymakers and others who see the internet as a valuable medium for debate and expression. 

Such curbs are called out as a threat to the open internet in a report on Internet governance set to be released today at an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting in Cancun, Mexico.