One of the United States government's priorities in Internet policy is encapsulated by a term that's recently been making the rounds; the "free flow of information." It appears almost every time U.S. officials describe how they intend to protect the free and open Internet, especially when it comes to international law. The general idea is that bits of online data should not be discriminated against, hindered, or regulated across national boundaries. As a general principle, this sounds positive. It could be a helpful antidote against arbitrary data localization rules that threaten to break up the global Internet, or attempts by governments' to block and censor foreign websites using nationwide filters. At least, that is the claim that officials such as the U.S.

Facebook Rightfully Questions Claims That California Inmates Are Banned from Having a Social Media Presence

Up until last spring, Facebook had maintained a semi-secret channel for corrections facilities to file "Inmate Takedown" requests. A prison official could fill out a simple online form, hit submit, and Facebook would begin the account suspension process without ever creating a public record. Since Facebook wouldn’t publish the number of inmate takedown requests it received (and still hasn’t), the entire censorship regime was essentially invisible.