The World Wide Web

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

How is the cow?

 

[West Pointers will recognize this question.  There is a pat, plebe answer, but it seemed appropriate for this article. -ed]

 

The world wide web is both a blessing and a curse.  But let us remember that like firearms, it is a thing and any evil/good can only come from the people using it.

[Duke87 1,070]

It seems to me that the internet has followed and is continuing to follow patterns that basically have it as the digital frontier. At first only a few pioneers ventured in with rudimentary tools and they were out there on their own. Then a few more people followed and it was the wild west, with bandits and outlaws doing as they pleased. Now, as the internet has grown larger and more advanced, there are greater opportunities but also greater desires to regulate and control it in order to preserve safety and/or profitability, i.e. "tame the wild west". This makes the internet a less dangerous place to be but at the same time means that now you aren't simply free to do as you please, there are regulations that must be complied with.

 

This trend is only going to continue. Over time you will see more standardization of how everything is done, more unification forcing people to maintain a more consistent online identity, more bureaucratic red tape in order to set up a website, more rules about what you can and cannot put on said website and penalties for failure to comply, and more rules for how you as an end user can and cannot access the internet.

 

And, of course, more surveillance. If it is technologically possible, it will be done. Never in the history of mankind have we had the capability do wield some technological power and declined to do so. It is simply against human nature.

 

The unprecedented availability of information we have today has fundamentally changed the game of knowledge. We are no longer limited by how much information is available, we are now limited by our resources to gather and analyze it. This tips the balance of power in favor of entities that have the most resources.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

As far as monitoring goes, I got an update the other day to a package that allows me to capture every packet going by on my broadband circuit, addressed to me or not.  I have better things to do, so I don't, but it could be useful if I was invaded.

[Meg 368]

"It's time to recognise the internet as a basic human right."    ?

 

okay . . . on one level, I understand that.   People who have internet access are, generally, at a much greater advantage than those who do not.    If I could do one thing for everyone on the planet, it would be to give them the opportunity to be educated to use whatever productive talents and skills they have.    Not possible, of course, but the internet is the closest thing we have in that direction.

 

But, a basic human right?    How are we defining "human right"?

 

 

[Duke87 1,070]

I would say "human right" here is defined as something which it is cruel and inhumane to deny to someone.

 

But the biggest hangup is that putting something like the internet in this category requires looking at morals in a highly relative way. From a perspective of absolute morals it is absurd because otherwise everyone who lived before the invention of the internet would have been cruelly denied it.

 

That said I can see this as not internet itself being a human right, but rather it being a specific manifestation of a more general and more timeless concept: the right to knowledge. Providing internet to everyone free of charge does not make sense in a world where we still pay for electricity and water (and rightly so, because otherwise we would have no incentive to not waste them). But given that someone has purchased internet access (and a device with which to use it), it is fair game to say they have a right to 1) access any information on the internet without any censorship or deliberate slowdown of delivery, 2) use the internet without fear for their personal or digital safety, 3) have freedom of speech and of the press on the internet.

 

 

So really we are talking about "right to a free internet", not "right to free internet access".

[LexusInfernus 908]

How are we defining "human right"?

As all human rights are defined. Something you should have or gain access to purely on the virtue of being born as a human being. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, Internet access is clearly not a human right.  It is a public utility and as such is in the same category as electrical connection.  Millions get along fine without either.  In many cases, ignorant of the existence of either, they don't miss it at all.

 

There is a serious difference between a right, a privilege and a utility.

 

Recently I watched an episode of House Hunters Off The Grid.  The chap wanted a house off the grid but couldn't stand the idea of being off the Internet. 

 

IMHO that is one mixed up person.  You are either off the grid or you are not.  Off the grid doesn't mean no utilities with exceptions.  Off the grid means you don't have the public utilities and must provide your own if you want power, running water, etc.  If he wants Internet, it is up to him to figure out how to get it and how to pay for it.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Well, Internet access is clearly not a human right.  It is a public utility and as such is in the same category as electrical connection.  Millions get along fine without either.  In many cases, ignorant of the existence of either, they don't miss it at all.

 

There is a serious difference between a right, a privilege and a utility.

I believe I made this argument before, but you can essentially create two groups of 'rights'. One right means you automatically get it, the other one means that if you seek to make use of your right, no one can deny you access to it. So, making the internet a human right does not necessarily mean that you therefor MUST get internet access automatically. It can simply mean that no one can deny or limit your access once you have the money needed to pay an ISP to give you internet. It can also mean that the ISP cannot deny people as clients. 

 

So far, the proponents of the idea that the internet is a human right have followed the idea that governments cannot deny or limit your access, but not that you must automatically get your own internet subscription. And I strongly agree with them.