[148203] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: Whacky Weekend: Is Internet Access a Human Right?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Nathan Eisenberg)
Thu Jan 5 13:10:40 2012
From: Nathan Eisenberg <nathan@atlasnetworks.us>
To: "Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu" <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu>, Jon Schipp
<jonschipp@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 18:09:47 +0000
In-Reply-To: <7253.1325785791@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
> > I think the idea that food, shelter etc. are human rights is absurd.
> > Doesn't that imply that someone must provide those things for me?
> What
> > if they don't want to? Does that mean they are forced to? Which would
> > be a violation of their human rights.
>=20
> There are those who think that it's a government's responsibility to
> make sure that people don't die from starvation or lack of access to
> medical care.
> Then there are those who think it's OK to let people die in the gutter.
And as with most things - the 'truth' is probably somewhere between the ext=
remes.
Internet access, as a vehicle for free speech, is at least an important civ=
il right. I wouldn't immediately discard the notion that, as a subset of f=
ree speech, it is a human right. Internet access, by way of cell phones, h=
as increasingly enabled repressed peoples to expose their suffering to the =
outside world. One doesn't have to look any further than the protests in I=
ran after the reelection of Ahmadinejad to see that. When the reporters an=
d cameras have been exiled, and all that remains is the general public arme=
d with their cellphones against the military police armed with rifles, free=
dom of speech and internet access become the very same thing.
Certainly, to an oppressive dictator, internet access and free speech are t=
he very same right. In a modern world, to curtail one is to curtail the ot=
her.
Nathan
=A0
