Let us start with the internet community which has brought us the internet as it exists today.
While they have always advocated their position on a ‘free internet’; they have failed to turn that issue into a truly international movement, and over the last two decades they have also not been active in trying to build up political support for such a concept. The international internet organisations (ICANN, IETF, IGF, ISOC) are largely technology-based, or they are voluntary administration organisations. For several years it has been clear that these organisations need to lift their profile and become more active in the overall governance of the internet. However this has not happened and we could pay dearly for this as it has left the doors wide open for others to move in and start to assert their influence.
One of the problems in this case has been that these internet organisations are US-based and, rightly or wrongly, are seen (or portrayed) as American rather than international organisations. And neither they, nor the US government for that matter, have done enough to change that perception.