Berners-Lee says Internet access is a ‘human right’
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Quoth Tim Berners-Lee:
“Access to the Web is now a human right. It’s possible to live without the Web. It’s not possible to live without water. But if you’ve got water, then the difference between somebody who is connected to the Web and is part of the information society, and someone who (is not) is growing bigger and bigger.”
Putting aside his haphazard reasoning, relating whether or not you have water to the size of whatever he means by ‘difference’ (read that quote carefully, see if you can parse it in a way that actually makes any sense), this train of thought is very dangerous.
Let’s not throw around the term ‘human right’ as if anyone - even the great Tim Berners-Lee, whom I respect - can define what our human rights are. Our human rights are innately existent and unrepentantly constant. As codified in the United States Declaration of Independence they are the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (although I find that third item to be somewhat nebulous, so I prefer the more succinct “life, liberty and prosperity”).
You may not take my life. You may not take my liberty. You may not take my property. These are the principles governments are formed to uphold, and the conservation of them is the measure to which governments should exist (it can be argued that the very presence of a government is in violation of all three human rights, but that’s a high-horse I shall ride another time). They are passive protections of the self. To no extent do these principles charge me (or ISPs) with providing anyone else with free Internet access, electricity, clothing or even water for crying out loud. They simply protect the things I am born with, the things that are intrinsically mine, the things that I earn during my life.
The above quote demonstrates a major misunderstanding of the nature of the things to which you are entitled, as per your human rights. The (erroneous) belief is that if you do not have something, someone else ought to give you theirs. This is not the case. Human rights are what you are born with, what is yours by default. It is when these things are taken away from you that issue is to be taken.
Go ahead, Mr. Berners-Lee, donate your time and your money to making ubiquitous Internet access a reality. But, pretty please, don’t presume to make “free access to the web” one of my human rights - my rights that condemn such a thing in the first place, by the way.
And let’s be honest: who wants a government-controlled Internet?
(Source: networkworld.com)
