[governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR

Thu Jan 5 17:20:50 EST 2012

Hi all,

Isn't part of the difficulty that we put under the term "the Internet"
different things? It is the infrastructure, it is the content that reside
on servers and it is the global space (let's call it again Cyberspace)
where people interact.

In that respect, it is connected to different human rights, including
freedom of circulation, which is rarely mentioned.

But I agree that Vint's piece has the merit of triggering probably
wide-ranging discussions, helping put the topic higher on the agenda.

B.

On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 10:42 PM, Yrjö Länsipuro
<yrjo_lansipuro at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  Hi all,
>
> At least Vint's op-ed sparked an interesting discussion on various lists.
>
> IMO,  relevant human rights are formulated in UDHR, particularly in
> Article 19, and other comparable documents. In 1948, there was no Internet,
> and "through any media" referred to whatever media there was at the time.
> But today, internet is certainly the main vehicle/tool/enabler for the
> implementation of these human rights,  and denial of access to the Internet
> certainly equals  denial of human rights.
>
> Vint mentions a couple of countries where access to the Internet has been
> proclaimed a human right. Sometimes Finland is also listed among them.
> However, the decision to make broadband available to all ( permanent
> residences and places of business) is technically a universal service
> obligation, and access is not defined as a human right as such.
>
> Roland mentions internet access in jails.  It is now tried out in  Finland
> in three minimum security prisons and will be extended to all (14) soon,
> not as a right but as a means to help people serving their sentences to
> study, to seek employment and to generally to prepare for life after
> prison.
>
> I agree with Avri that the most valuable point of the op-end is at the
> end: technologists should focus on creating rights-enabling technologies
> instead of rights-disabling ones.
>
> Yrjö
>
> > Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 12:55:24 -0500
> > To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> > Subject: Re: [governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is
> not a HR
>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I agree with those who beleive that Vint's Opinion piece is problematic.
> I think he misses the point on several levels though I think he does make
> one critical point that hits the mark.
> >
> > - As some have pointed out the Internet is not technology, the Internet
> may be enabled by technology but it is a whole lot more than that, most
> especially it is the content one can publish and consume using the
> technology. The Internet is more like the published word, than it is like a
> horse. The Internet is not technology, it is not even totally shaped by
> technology as the techno-policy aspects are greater in many respects than
> the bit and bytes of the protocol designs and implementations. To say that
> people have a right to Internet access is a lot like saying people have a
> right of access to published material.
> >
> > - Another point he misses is contained in: "Civil rights, after all, are
> different from human rights because they are conferred upon us by law, not
> intrinsic to us as human beings." While I am glad that he does not go all
> the way to define where intrinsic rights come from, for all intents and
> purpose Human Rights and Civil Rights are defined by the same set of basic
> rights documents: the UDHR <http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html>, the
> ICCPR <http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm> and the ICESCR <
> http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm>. To set these things as
> somehow separate and coming from different origins takes us back to the
> battle between Natural and Legal rights. The documents referred to above,
> an UNGA resolution (soft law) and two binding treaties (binding law),
> sometimes referred to as the International Bill of Human Rights, moved us
> beyond that argument putting both Human and Civil rights on a legal basis.
> It is a category error to place them in opposition to each other.
> >
> > Unfortunately the most important point he makes is almost swallowed by
> the problematic background of the paper: That technologists need to focus
> on the creation of rights-enabling technology as opposed to
> rights-disabling technology. This is, in my opinion the critical thing to
> take from this piece, problematic aspects aside. Personally I think a lot
> of the technology that has gone in enabling the Internet has indeed being
> rights-enabling. In recent years, however, much has been done by technical
> companies to create a great amount of rights-disabling technology. And this
> is the big warning I take from the piece. Technology companies have to stop
> endangering people's rights in their quest of profits and government
> approval.
> >
> > I hope those reading this piece among the technology purveyors and
> technical developers pay attention and stop creating the technology that
> disables the right-enabling characteristic of the Internet. It is good that
> someone as revered as he is by many in our corner of the world, should make
> this sort of statement.
> >
> > avri
> >
> >
> >
> > On 5 Jan 2012, at 07:03, Ginger Paque wrote:
> >
> > >
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/opinion/internet-access-is-not-a-human-right.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212
> > >
> > > Interesting opinion piece from Vint Cerf. I am copy/pasting it here
> for those who may not be able to access it:
> > > January 4, 2012
> > > Internet Access Is Not a Human Right
> > > By VINTON G. CERF
> > > Reston, Va.
> > >
> > > FROM the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around
> the world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that
> interact with it. Though the demonstrations thrived because thousands of
> people turned out to participate, they could never have happened as they
> did without the ability that the Internet offers to communicate, organize
> and publicize everywhere, instantaneously.
> > >
> > > It is no surprise, then, that the protests have raised questions about
> whether Internet access is or should be a civil or human right. The issue
> is particularly acute in countries whose governments clamped down on
> Internet access in an attempt to quell the protesters. In June, citing the
> uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, a report by the United
> Nations’ special rapporteur went so far as to declare that the Internet had
> “become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights.” Over
> the past few years, courts and parliaments in countries like France and
> Estonia have pronounced Internet access a human right.
> > >
> > > But that argument, however well meaning, misses a larger point:
> technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar
> for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among
> the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives,
> like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to
> place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time
> we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you
> didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right
> in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse.
> Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I
> would put it.
> > >
> > > The best way to characterize human rights is to identify the outcomes
> that we are trying to ensure. These include critical freedoms like freedom
> of speech and freedom of access to information — and those are not
> necessarily bound to any particular technology at any particular time.
> Indeed, even the United Nations report, which was widely hailed as
> declaring Internet access a human right, acknowledged that the Internet was
> valuable as a means to an end, not as an end in itself.
> > >
> > > What about the claim that Internet access is or should be a civil
> right? The same reasoning above can be applied here — Internet access is
> always just a tool for obtaining something else more important — though the
> argument that it is a civil right is, I concede, a stronger one than that
> it is a human right. Civil rights, after all, are different from human
> rights because they are conferred upon us by law, not intrinsic to us as
> human beings.
> > >
> > > While the United States has never decreed that everyone has a “right”
> to a telephone, we have come close to this with the notion of “universal
> service” — the idea that telephone service (and electricity, and now
> broadband Internet) must be available even in the most remote regions of
> the country. When we accept this idea, we are edging into the idea of
> Internet access as a civil right, because ensuring access is a policy made
> by the government.
> > >
> > > Yet all these philosophical arguments overlook a more fundamental
> issue: the responsibility of technology creators themselves to support
> human and civil rights. The Internet has introduced an enormously
> accessible and egalitarian platform for creating, sharing and obtaining
> information on a global scale. As a result, we have new ways to allow
> people to exercise their human and civil rights.
> > >
> > > In this context, engineers have not only a tremendous obligation to
> empower users, but also an obligation to ensure the safety of users online.
> That means, for example, protecting users from specific harms like viruses
> and worms that silently invade their computers. Technologists should work
> toward this end.
> > >
> > > It is engineers — and our professional associations and
> standards-setting bodies like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
> Engineers — that create and maintain these new capabilities. As we seek to
> advance the state of the art in technology and its use in society, we must
> be conscious of our civil responsibilities in addition to our engineering
> expertise.
> > >
> > > Improving the Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by
> which to improve the human condition. It must be done with an appreciation
> for the civil and human rights that deserve protection — without pretending
> that access itself is such a right.
> > >
> > > Vinton G. Cerf, a fellow at the Institute of Electrical and
> Electronics Engineers, is a vice president and chief Internet evangelist
> for Google.
> > >
> > > Ginger (Virginia) Paque
> > > Diplo Foundation
> > > www.diplomacy.edu/ig
> > > VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu
> > >
> > > Join the Diplo community IG discussions:
> www.diplointernetgovernance.org
> > >
> > >
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