Free internet access should be considered a ‘moral human right’ as people unable to get online lack meaningful ways to influence the powers that shape their lives, according to a new study.
Those who are unable to get online – particularly in third world countries – may be missing out on basic rights such as freedom of expression, access to information and the freedom of assembly (to join others in expression).
As political debate increasingly takes place online citizens who do not have access to the internet may lack vital opportunities to have their say – currently some 2.3 billion people are without affordable Internet access.
New research by the University of Birmingham reveals that access to the internet could be a key way of protecting other basic human rights such as life, liberty, and freedom from torture – a means of enabling billions of people to lead ‘minimally decent lives’.
As political engagement increasingly takes place online citizens who do not have access to the internet may lack vital opportunities to have their say
Dr. Merten Reglitz, Lecturer in Global Ethics at the University of Birmingham, has published his findings – the first study of its kind – in the Journal of Applied Philosophy.
Dr Reglitz said: ‘Internet access is no luxury, but instead a moral human right and everyone should have unmonitored and uncensored access to this global medium – provided free of charge for those unable to afford it.
‘Without such access, many people lack a meaningful way to influence and hold accountable supranational rule-makers and institutions.
‘These individuals simply don’t have a say in the making of the rules they must obey and which shape their life chances.’
Adding that exercising free speech and obtaining information was now heavily dependent on having internet access.
Much of today’s political conversation takes place online with politically relevant information shared on the internet – the study found this to mean that the relative freedoms for people ‘offline’ had decreased.
Dr. Reglitz believes the worldwide communication offered by the internet could work as a protective safeguard for human rights to life, liberty and bodily integrity.
Dr. Reglitz cites the #MeToo campaign, which has helped to ‘out’ sexual harassment of women by powerful men, as an example of the internet helping hold people to account
Whilst acknowledging that being online does not guarantee these rights, he cites examples of internet engagement that helped hold government and institutions to account.
Firstly, The ‘Arab Spring’, which saw new ways of global reporting on government atrocities.
Secondly the documentation of unjustified police violence against African Americans in the US.
And thirdly the #MeToo campaign, which has helped to ‘out’ sexual harassment of women by powerful men.
Dr. Reglitz defines ‘moral human rights’ as based on universal interests essential for a ‘minimally decent life’ – the rights must also be of such fundamental importance that if a nation is unwilling or unable to uphold these rights, the international community must step in.
The size of the challenge involved in providing universal internet access to the estimated 49 per cent of the world’s population living without is not to be underestimated.
With he UN’s International Telecommunication Union estimating that, by the end of 2018, 51 percent of the world’s population of 7 billion people had access to the Internet.
Many people in poorer parts of the world are still without internet access, but their number is decreasing as technology becomes cheaper.
However, internet expansion has slowed in recent years, suggesting universal access will not occur without intentional promotion.
Dr Reglitz said: ‘Universal internet access need not cost the earth – accessing politically important opportunities such as blogging, obtaining information, joining virtual groups, or sending and receiving emails does not require the latest information technology.
Many people in poorer parts of the world are still without internet access, but their number is decreasing as technology becomes cheaper
‘Web-capable phones allow people to access these services and public internet provision, such as public libraries, can help get people online where individual domestic access is initially too expensive.’
He added that the human right to internet access was similar to the global right to health.
While not all states are able to provide the highest possible quality in medical treatment as they are too poor – basic medical services are available, with poorer populations working towards a higher standard of service.
Similarly, such states should initially offer locations with public Internet access and develop IT infrastructure that increases access.
According to the NGO The World Wide Web Foundation, founded by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, ‘affordability’ remains one of the most significant, but solvable, obstacles to universal access.
For the Foundation, internet access is affordable if one gigabyte of data costs no more than two percent of average monthly income.
HOW DID TIM BERNERS-LEE CREATE THE INTERNET?
The World Wide Web was created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist born on June 8, 1955.
Having studied physics at Queen’s College Oxford, graduating in 1976, he started as an engineer in the telecommunications and microprocessor software industry.
In 1980, while working as an independent contractor at CERN, Berners-Lee described the concept of a global system based on using hypertext to share information between researchers.
Tim Berners-Lee wrote (pictured) the blueprint for what would become the World Wide Web, and said he is alarmed at what has happened to it in the last year
He built a prototype system called Enquire, which formed the conceptual basis for the World Wide Web.
In 1989 he published his landmark paper, ‘Information Management: A Proposal’, built the first WWW server and web browser ‘WorldWideWeb.app’.
In 1994, he founded the World Wide Web Consortium, the main international standards organisation for the internet.
