Most of us rely on it to get through our day. We communicate through it, do research on it, shop on it, do just about everything on it. It’s so omnipresent, so interwoven into our 21st century lives that it’s easy to forget that it’s only existed for less than 30 years. And because of its novelty, many people have argued that it’s infrastructures are vulnerable to abuse – whether it be increased government surveillance, identity theft, and corporatized communications.

On this episode of Think, Dr. Michael Geist describes the grassroots rights movements that challenge the powerful interests that threaten the most intrinsic, democratic features of the world wide web.