Human right to internet access?

The following article was found via Twitter – please read in full at: http://www.nakedlaw.com/2009/06/human-right-to-internet-access-.html

Yesterday I went to the CUTEC conference here in Cambridge which provided a forum for encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the major themes this year was around social responsibility and empowering individuals – big aims for a room of techies and ambitious PhD students. In particular cloud computing was very much viewed as the way forward and the democratisation of information and accessibility to services – resulting, for example, in the wife of one panelist being able to get real time advice on breast feeding at 4am from other mothers via her iPhone. In this context I was interested to see that the French courts have refused to uphold a new law allowing officials to cut off the internet connection of persistent online infringers.

The Constitutional Court held that only a court could do that – on the basis that access to online services is a human right. That’s the first time I’ve heard of internet access being referred to as a human right, and I question whether an English court would reach the same view – and clearly on one level it’s not in the same league as the rights to life, to freedom of thought and religious beliefs. But there were many inspirational (as well as aspirational) stories at the CUTEC conference about precisely this issue – that internet and mobile technologies do change lives and communities; that widespread access to and democratisation of services could be the catalyst for social change and improvement in developing nations. I suspect there’s a fundamental tension here between the increasing attempts to regulate the online world (with admitedly varying degrees of success) and the desire to fully exploit its potential and enable people all over the world participate in the online revolution. ”

Posted by Sarah on June 12, 2009 at 09:59 AM