Absolutely and unquestionably, even the US government has a page on it lol.

https://www.state.gov/internet-freedom-and-technology-and-human-rights/

Considering how necessary it is to exist and thrive in the developed world, I’d say yes. Good luck getting by without email or accessing online services without reliable internet access.

Yes. But also, lets remember most countries are still in the kiddie pool of “is food a basic human right?”. So you know, dream big, but keep expectations in check.

The right and freedom to live without them is much more important. We all get old and if life can only exist online, you are absolutely fucked at that point where you can’t understand the new way of doing things… Every 2 years.

No.

Here’s my reasoning. For example, when pedophiles are caught online, they have their internet access revoked as part of the punishment to their crimes. If you feel that accessing computers and the internet should be a basic right, you are saying that this pedophile’s ‘right’ to use a computer and the internet is infringed, despite doing a considerably awful thing.

And that’s something I just cannot simply get behind.

Furthermore, the internet has been contested numerous times and moreso than ever, about the legitimacy of the information on it. We’ve been going through a few awful periods where right now, information is being fixed and rigged to favor certain political ideologies, pseudoscience and outright bias. I have always been told that everything that is on the internet should always be taken with a grain of salt. I would rather we have a right to a library than we have a right to information on the internet.

If everyone is complaining so much about the ‘damages’ of social media, what would making the internet be branded a ‘right’ improve? Great, you have to the right now, to be lied to and misinformed. Good on ya!

10 years ago I would have said yes, absolutely, because I was young and naive. Today not so much. Although I don’t think lack of internet is the solution to containing the crazy of society since they managed to spread that without internet in the past just fine. Its just that this iteration of crazy feels like it was specifically pushed through the current internet we have.

I think so, yes. It sounds like your stance is similar to my own. My reasoning is that the internet is so ubiquitous in countries like my own, and for all its ills, I am so glad that I was born in a time where my voracious appetite for learning can put me in contact with an abundance of free learning resources and people who are just like me.

Acknowledging the internet as a basic human right would require addressing the severely uneven distribution of its access; I can’t ignore the fact that I’m only able to access all this cool stuff because I live in a country that colonised and oppressed a significant chunk of the world. It’s no wonder that it’s becoming harder to find worthwhile knowledge and community online when the internet and all the technology that supports it is borne of historic injustices. If we want the internet to do something besides serve the interests of capital, we need to address the structural inequalities regarding its access. It’s fucked up that there are so many places in the global South that only have access to internet because companies like Meta went in pretending to be charitable, so they could create and capture a new chunk of the market. Apparently in Brazil, it’s not abnormal for official government communication to use WhatsApp. Sometimes it makes me feel hopeless for the future

However, I am bolstered by reflecting on the history of other technologies. I was reading recently about how the printing press disrupted society, by giving far more regular people the opportunity to access written ideas, as well as share their own thoughts with the world. This was not a straightforwardly positive thing. There were (and indeed, still are) many privileged people who were of the sentiment that regular people having wider access to the written word was harmful to society, and to those regular people. Whilst I vehemently disagree with the classist sentiment they espoused, I do see some of their point — someone having the ability to read something doesn’t necessarily mean they have the skills to understand it. Widespread misinterpretation and misinformation were side effects of the printing press, and it reminds me of some of the harms of the internet that we’re experiencing today.

I’ve read a lot of scholarly works on the question of “what the fuck should we do about all this online misinformation?”, and it seems that we don’t really have an answer to that right now. It’s too late to close Pandora’s box now though, so we’ll have to figure that out. I think that working towards equitable access to the internet is an important step towards collectively solving that problem, because the internet is something that affects everyone nowadays — even those who can’t access it themselves.

I want to say yes. Because it is absolutely so necessary to life these days.

But i equally want to say no! You should need to get an internet drivers licence for that shit! Some people are so susceptible to scams, fake news and propaganda that having access to a rectangle that thrusts it down your throat, pretty much unfiltered, is fucking dangerous.

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Yes, but so should water, electricity, healthcare etc, so it doesn’t look like that’s happening

I’d counter, but realistically just add to your sentiment by vouching for having non-online alternatives for most of our needs. Banking and government’s services in my country are on the edge of going full web/sim-driven, and I don’t like it that way. If I happen to get the delivery from my post office, they default to sms confirmation, and I’m not sure if I can get my parcel just by showing my ID card.

Internet access should be a human right, just as avoiding it should.

Considering where we are due to cheap and accessible internet, no.

It doesn’t need to be in every world, but it does in this one, where so much shit you need is only on the computer. Some things they simply do not stock in stores anymore.

I’d like to see a world where everyone has the capability to shape this digital space in a fair and accessible manner.

From the title I was thinking about stuff like access to online banking, transport, news, remote working etc, which absolutely is essential for participating in modern society. But “shape this digital space” sounds a lot like social media, which I’d be more than happy to see completely burned to the ground. I’m here very much against my better judgement.

Human rights are the ones we have by virtue of being human. Since we were human before the Internet, it’s a little shaky. But at the same time, part of being human is assing down information from one generation to the next, and the Internet is a means to do that. I think both arguments have their merits, and I’m not in favor of access bring legally restricted in any case.