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

Carlos A. Afonso ca at cafonso.ca
Fri Jan 6 07:05:01 EST 2012 

After this ongoing and fascinating exegesis of Dr Cerf's "Internet
fatwā" :), here is another good one for our thoughts:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_letter_on_gtld_program_jan_3_2012.pdf

frt rgds

--c.a.

On 01/06/2012 08:19 AM, Ian Peter wrote:
> I think the important thing in what Vint is saying is this -
>  
> QUOTE ³The 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.² END
> QUOTE
> 
> What we currently define as the Internet wont be here forever ­ it will
> morph into another and hopefully much better global communications mechanism
> or series of mechanisms. We are already seeing Internet content being made
> available via mechanisms which would never be defined as internet, eg mobile
> phone apps, television publishing of you tube content etc.
> 
> Unfortunately the history of rights in this area from a UN perspective
> continues to be haunted by the NWICO debates of the mid 1980s and the
> projected right to communicate, vigorously opposed by USA at the time and
> some of its allies. At that time the debate was about access to broadcasting
> and therefore to a large degree access to spectrum ­ and indeed these remain
> important issues.
> 
> I would like to see our efforts going towards the right to access knowledge,
> the right to communicate, and freedom of speech. And I would like these to
> be enshrined as applicable (where appropriate) in all present and future
> media forms.
> 
> Ian Peter
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: gpaque at gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 07:33:30 -0430
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: [governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/opinion/internet-access-is-not-a-human-rig
> ht.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 Nations¹ special
> rapporteur 
> <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/united-nations-report-in
> ternet-access-is-a-human-right.html>  went so far as to declare that the
> Internet had ³become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human
> rights.² 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 didn¹t 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, I¹m 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 ³right² to a
> telephone, we have come close to this with the notion of ³universal service²
> ‹ 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 <http://www.icann.org/en/biog/cerf.htm> , 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 <http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig>
> VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu
> 
> Join the Diplo community IG discussions: www.diplointernetgovernance.org
> <http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org>
> 
> 
>        
> 
> 
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