In the middle of 1992 the UN Security Council imposed all-inclusive sanctions against the newly formed Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro.
The sanctions prevented foreign companies from doing any kind of business with Yugoslav firms, so it was impossible to establish any commercial Internet links with Yugoslavia.
Before November 1995 the only way to access the Internet from Yugoslavia was by using an extremely expensive and slow X.25 packet network or by directly dialing ISPs abroad.
After the Dayton peace agreement was signed in the middle of November 1995 ending the war in Bosnia, some of the UN sanctions against Yugoslavia were lifted, opening the possibility of decent Internet access.
Opennet became the first Yugoslav ISP to offer affordable public Internet access, e-mail accounts, and Web space.
Like Radio B92, Opennet strongly supported the Internet as a means of free expression and promoting tolerance and open communication.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation honored Opennet's director Drazen Pantic as the EFF Pioneer for 1999, in recognition of his continued promotion of these values and of his contribution to the development of civil society in Yugoslavia.
However, it still didn't attain a widespread adoption due to various socioeconomic difficulties such as conflicts, general poverty, overall computer illiteracy (as a result of mentioned factors among others) and detrimental effects of sanctions and isolation, but still didn't lag dramatically in comparison to the countries in the region of somewhat higher level of economic development and similar socialist past, such as Romania.
While the law does not include a specific provision on hate speech, it is a criminal offense to "incite" national, racial, or religious intolerance.
In June 2011 the Constitutional Court banned the extreme right-wing organization Nacionalni Stroj (National Front) for promoting racist hate speech.