Internet Access: A fundamental human right?

In this day and age pretty much everyone has some kind of techno gadget that they believe they cannot live without. For most people, which I have to include myself in, it’s their cell phone.  For others it's their laptop, or desktop computer. And for almost everyone, its their access to this magical place we all call the internet.

Funny how in a relatively short amount of time, we have all become almost completely dependant on the internet. We check our emails, manage our finances, get our news, entertainment, and for some people make their living on the internet. What if that was all of a sudden taken away? What would you do?

I know for me it’s a part of my daily life. I pretty much manage everything I do on the internet. I manage my finances online. A lot of my social life is online. Be it with my real life friends or people I have only met on the internet. A lot of it is done through an internet connection. Hell, without the internet I would not have met my beautiful girlfriend, who I love and adore. And yes I have met her in real life and we now live together.

The internet has become the most important communication tool of our time. Just like how the phone was and the telegraph was before that. If the internet would to suddenly be gone, it would disrupt everything. From communication to the stock exchange. Just look what happened in Egypt. Fortunately for the people in Egypt they found ways around what the government did. Some people called people to get things posted, pulled out their trusty dial-up modems and got online with ISP’s in other countries and some resourceful people even used HAM radio frequencies to get online. I'm not going to get into the political discussion of what happened, but its important to note that the internet has become the most important communication tool ever created.

There are some people who say that having the internet has become a fundamental human right. I know that a lot of things I do online and I believe everyone should be able to have access to the internet. But to make it a fundamental right to have an internet connection?

A Human Right is defined as a right that is believed to belong justifiably to every person. Fundamental  rights, like a lot of things are subjective. What is a right in one society is sometimes illegal in another society.

For instance, though obtaining a drivers license in the United States is technically a privilege to have. A privilege, that for sakes and purposes, is a right that anyone can get. Other then if any medical conditions make it so that you cannot drive safely. But in other places, like Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, unless that gave their husbands consent. In some countries, people have the right to bear arms [own firearms] and in other countries it's illegal for anyone in the general public to have one.

With all of that said, I do believe that everyone should be able to have access to it. Anyone should be able to be sign up with their local ISP [Internet Service Provider] and have access to the internet. In the United States, you can go to any local library and go online. Most coffee shops and even fast food restaurants now have free WiFi access to the Internet.

Like a lot of things, the access to the Internet has costs. Not as extreme as the big ISP’s would like you to believe. But this is not a discussion on data caps because of “congestion”. The costs of the internet is the access to it. The costs of the connections from the ISP to their customers and the costs of maintaining those lines.

As far as a fundamental human right to have a internet connection, I do not believe so. But, I do believe that everyone should have the right to be able to access it.