33. Is Internet Access a Human Right? With Merten Reglitz

Ethics Untangled

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When I was doing my undergraduate degree back in the 90s, the Internet was a bit of a novelty. It was fun to play with, and you could see theoretically how it was probably going to be quite important. I'm not sure I would have predicted how completely it now pervades every area of human life, though: work, civil society, leisure and social interactions. There's still, however, a significant digital divide. Not everyone has easy access, or any access to the internet, and its systemic importance in all of these areas means this is more of a disadvantage than it's ever been.

Merten Reglitz, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, thinks it's time we recognised internet access not just as a significant good, but as a human right.

Here is Merten's recently published book on the topic, an overview of it and an article that sets out the book’s main defence of the idea of a new right.

An article and another article opposing the idea that internet is a human right.

The latest figures on global connectivity from the ITU.

Freedom House’s ‘Freedom of the Net’ reports on internet freedom.

Book your place at our public event with Gavin Esler, "Dead Cats, Strategic Lying and Truth Decay", here.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.
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