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Free Internet Access as a Human Right

A philosophical case for an internet that respects and promotes human rights.

This project explores the justifiability and implications of a novel, standalone human right to Internet access. These are important questions because the Internet has changed human communication and opportunities for emancipation, learning, and exchange like no other mass medium. Those who can access it have in many ways become dependent on the internet.

However, 2.6 billion people (about 1/3 of humanity) had no internet access in 2024. Those who have internet access, though, can often not make use of it without problematic interference. According to estimates, in 2022 more than 3/4 of those who had internet access lived in countries where people were arrested for posting political, social, or religious content online and almost 2/3 of all global internet users were subject to online censorship. Even those who can use the internet without such limitations routinely have their personal data harvested by Big Tech platforms and other online services.

There is currently no widely accepted standalone/independent right to guaranteed access to the internet that is free from arbitrary interferences. This project offers the first comprehensive philosophical case for establishing such a novel human right. It focuses on the many ways in which the internet (positively and negatively) affects our human rights today and has indeed become practically indispensable for having adequate opportunities to enjoy and protect these rights.

Some of the project’s central questions include:

  • How is a standalone human right to internet access justifiable?
  • What are the impacts of the internet on human rights today?
  • What are the main threats to the unimpeded access and use of the internet?
  • What global standard of provision does a human right to internet access entail?
  • What protections of internet access and use must public institutions guarantee?

The project is a work in philosophical human rights theory that is informed by insights about the internet from a wide range of disciplines such as computer science, law, medical science, educational science, economics, psychology, communication and media studies, and development studies. Its goal is to provide a positive vision for an alternative internet that is an empowering, human rights- promoting medium rather than a tool of surveillance, oppression, and profit maximisation.

Publications

Policy briefs

Blogposts, podcasts, interviews, media

Media coverage

The publications of the projects have been covered by several hundred news websites globally. Some of this coverage includes:

Researcher

  • Dr Merten Reglitz

    Associate Professor of Philosophy

    Merten is a political philosopher with expertise in distributive justice, global ethics, and normative approaches to the internet.

Contact

For further information about this research, please email m.reglitz@bham.ac.uk

This project was supported by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant.