Re: Whacky Weekend: Is Internet Access a Human Right?

[Zaid Ali <zaid () zaidali com>]

On 1/5/12 8:07 AM, "Jay Ashworth" <jra () baylink com> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Zaid Ali" <zaid () zaidali com>
>
> > On 1/5/12 7:22 AM, "Jay Ashworth" <jra () baylink com> wrote:
> >
> > > Vint Cerf says no: http://j.mp/wwL9Ip
> > >
> > > But I wonder to what degree that's dependent on how much our
> > governments
> > > make Internet access the most practical/only practical way to interact
> > > with them.
> > >
> > > Understand: I'm not saying that FiOS should be a human right. But as a
> > > society, America's recognized for decades that you gotta have a
> > telephone,
> > > and subsidized local/lifeline service to that extent; that sort of
> > subsidy
> > > applies to cellular phones now as well.
>
> > I agree with Vint here. Basic human rights are access to food, clothing
> > and shelter. I think we are still struggling in the world with that.
> > With
> > your logic one would expect the radio and TV to be a basic human right
> > but
> > they are not, they are and will remain powerful medium which be enablers
> > of something else and the Internet would fit there.
>
> Well, I dunno... as I think was obvious from my other comments: TV and
> Radio
> are *broadcast* media; telephones and the internet are not; they're
> *two-way*
> communications media... and they're the communications media which have
> been
> chosen by the organs of government we've constituted to run things for us.
>
> You hit the important word, though, in your reply: "*access to* food,
> clothing,
> and shelter"... not the things themselves.
>
> The question here is "is *access to* the Internet a human right,
> something 
> which the government ought to recognize and protect"?  I sort of think it
> is,
> myself... and I think that Vint is missing the point: *all* of the things
> we generally view as human rights are enablers to other things, and we
> generally dub them *as those things*, by synecdoche... at least in my
> experience.


If I wrote a blog article that criticized the government and it was
shutdown along with my Internet access I wouldn't say that my right to the
Internet was violated. I would say that my right to free speech was
violated. Regardless of one way or two way communication it is
communication. 

Zaid