Is Internet Access a Basic Human Right?

This issue has been coming up quite a bit lately, so I thought I would address it.  This is my opinion, I realize there are others who feel differently.


As FCC commissioner Michael Copps stated in 2008, “No matter who you are, or where you live, or how much money you make ... you will need, and you are entitled to have these tools (broadband) available to you, I think, as a civil right." With more and more questions about revisions to net neutrality laws and many considerations taking place, it is something we might all want to think about.

The primary method of communication in any age is a fundamental right. Future technology is always a luxury, but the prevalent form of communication IS a necessity and access to it is a true civil right.
In the Middle Ages when the State and the Church tried to limit Books and The Bible to only the State and the Church they were able to keep the people and peasants just that - people and peasants. The world didn't begin to grow until everyone was being educated to read and write.

We can look to Korea and its broadband and education history to show us the benefits, and what we miss when we do not offer broadband. Korea was never the most economically suited to have the highest broadband penetration in Asia, but they made it a priority.

Now Korea excels in education. Korea has the highest level of secondary school graduates among all high-income Asia-Pacific economies. Broadband increases their industrial efficiency, creates e-business and jobs, improves global communications, and adds several thousand dollars per capita to the GDP.

As Cory Doctorow said, “"Human rights" aren't only water, food and shelter, they include such "nonessentials" as free speech, education, and privacy.”” Learning should not be available only to the privileged. In order to stay competitive, whether it is in education or in business opportunities, our economy and our educational system needs broadband for all. There are too many who, without it, will not have the same education as their peers in the city. There are too many companies who would not have the efficiency and thus the economic advantages as their competitors in other parts of the country. Countries like Finland, France and Spain have all declared broadband access a right, citing the need to stay competitive.

Interestingly, an attorney named Henry Anderson in Richmond, VA once argued on behalf of 2 clients, in the 1900’s when lighting was the “killer app” of electricity.

“Electric lights are different. Electricity is not in any sense a necessity, and under no conditions is it universally used by the people of a community. It is but a luxury enjoyed by a small proportion of the members of any municipality, and yet if the plant be owned and operated by the city, the burden of such ownership and operation must be borne by all the people through taxation."

“Now, electric light is not a necessity for every member of the community. It Is not the business of any one to see that I use electricity, or gas, or oil in my house, or even that I use any form of artificial light at all.”

Broadband is to this country today what indoor plumbing and electric lights were not long ago. It can be an equalizer between town and country and provide opportunities in education to rural and homebound people that they would otherwise not have. It levels the playing field for businesses. And everybody has a right to electricity.