Digital Rights - Human Rights and The Internet

Human Rights and The Internet

A number of human rights have been identified as relevant with regard to the Internet. These include: freedom of expression, data protection and privacy and freedom of association. Furthermore the right to education and multilingualism, consumer rights, and capacity building in the context of the right to development have also been identified. Human rights have been termed the "missing link" between the technology oriented and the value oriented approaches to the Internet.

A November 2011 story by the Catholic News Service (CNS) reporting on an editorial in the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica said:

The Internet is a global public good that should be accessible to all and respectful of the rights of others, said an influential Jesuit magazine.

With repressive regimes restricting access to information and communications, democratic governments should work to guarantee access to the Internet and adopt general principles to ensure network use respects universal human rights said an editorial in La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit journal reviewed by the Vatican before publication.

"What the law permits or prohibits offline must also be the case online," said the editorial released Nov. 17.

The "only widespread international consensus" on online material to be censored regards child pornography and cyberterrorism, the article said.

The Jesuit journal said that with individuals abusing the freedom of expression, with companies potentially exploiting computer users for financial gain and repressive regimes blocking information from their citizens, the world needs a "Charter of Human Rights for the Internet".

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized the United States government for considering during the Megaupload seizure process that people lose property rights by storing data on a cloud computing service.