Is Internet access and online freedom of expression a basic human right? The United Nations’ Human Rights Council unanimously backed that notion in a resolution passed Thursday.
The resolution says that all people should be allowed to connect to and express themselves freely on the Internet. All 47 members of the Human Rights Council, including notoriously censorship-prone countries such as China and Cuba, signed the resolution.
China’s support for the resolution came with the stipulation that the “free flow of information on the Internet and the safe flow of information on the Internet are mutually dependent,” as Chinese delegate Xia Jingge told the Council in a sign that the country isn’t about to tear down the so-called “Great Firewall of China.”
The concept was first affirmed by a U.N. agency, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in 2003. The ITU has recently come under fire after http://mashable.com/2012/05/30/united-nations-internet/ that member states were preparing proposals to give the United Nations more control over the Internet ahead of a December conference. The ITU has rejected many of those claims.
Internet access as a human right has since been supported by several of the Internet’s most well-known proponents, including Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
“[It's] an empowering thing for humanity to be connected at high speed and without borders,” Berners-Lee http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-13124335 the BBC in April of last year while reflecting on the Internet’s role in the Arab Spring uprisings.

The Human Rights Council is a United Nations body that monitors human rights progress and violations across all member countries. It has http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/LTD/G09/161/50/PDF/G0916150.pdf?OpenElement the right to freedom and expression “one of the essential foundations of a democratic society” and has recognized the Internet’s importance in the “promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.”
A separate United Nations report http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/06/united-nations-wikileaks-internet-human-rights/38526/ Internet access a human right in June of last year.

What is your opinion on this? I don't see how this can be a right, because I thought a right cannot be something given to you? Instead, rights are something that cannot be taken from you?

What is your opinion on this? I don't see how this can be a right, because I thought a right cannot be something given to you? Instead, rights are something that cannot be taken from you? The Internet always has been, and possibly always will be, a service. You pay people for internet(hoepfully not Rogers or Bell, they are the EA of internet/phone), and they supply you with internet. What's next, having a iPod/iPhone is a basic human right? I'm not doubting the power of the internet, as that was the thing that helped spread the Arab Spring and changed those countries, for better or worse. However, that doesn't mean it can just be a right. Before internet, vehicles have the main source of getting around and interacting with people, but having access to a vehicle was never deemed a right.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong on this. I'd like to hear the opinion of BGSF.

What is your opinion on this? I don't see how this can be a right, because I thought a right cannot be something given to you? Instead, rights are something that cannot be taken from you?

Our tax dollars at work... Seriously, this has absolutely zero effect on anything. Unless they somehow decide internet has to be provided for free. Any country that would forbid their citizens from using the internet is most likely already denying them much more important things anyway.

the Council affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; recognizes the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms; calls upon all States to promote and facilitate access to the Internet and international cooperation aimed at the development of media and information and communications facilities in all countries; encourages Special Procedures to take these issues into account within their existing mandates; and decides to continue its consideration of the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, on the Internet and in other technologies, as well as of how the Internet can be an important tool for development and for exercising human rights, in accordance with its programme of work.

Internet access = pormo or the ability to get away with being a dike

Don't forget the ability to watch endless cute animal videos.

Leonidas checking his twitter feed and see's a persians post "haha we found a back way, time to screw over the spartans"

Your sig should say "Schr?dinger's cat wanted dead and alive".

I'd say as it is right now, it differs from country to country. In the west, particularly in nations with highly developed internet infrastructure such as Scandinavia and Iceland it should be a human right. And I believe Finland was the first to move in this direction. People are becoming increasingly dependent on the internet not just to pay their bills and such, but also for political information and participation. Viewing the internet as some past-time luxury is a relic from the 90's at this point.

Leonidas checking his twitter feed and see's a persians post "haha we found a back way, time to screw over the spartans"

But the whole point of Human Rights is that they should be applied to everyone, equally, across the globe. That's why they call it a Universal Declaration...

Are you a spambot? Seriously, that made literally no sense. The garbled adverts for Viagra that occasionally come to my mailbox are more coherent than you.

But what you posted had nothing to do with rights or privileges. Or anything.

Our tax dollars at work... Seriously, this has absolutely zero effect on anything. Unless they somehow decide internet has to be provided for free. Any country that would forbid their citizens from using the internet is most likely already denying them much more important things anyway.

more or less i was more thinking of the idea of it being a human right, its silly and stupid to think so
hence the stupid thing i posted. It is not a right. its a privilege, i make my points in weird ways sometimes dear.

In fact, also mentioned in the article I linked to is Cuba's concern with the resolution insofar as it doesn't address the fact that not everyone has access.

Our tax dollars at work..