Legal Research

The Internet as a Fundamental Right?

By Mark Lewis

Mobility, Equality, Internet, Language? Which of these doesn’t fit? According to a recent BBC survey all of them fit. A sizable majority of nearly 28,000 respondents from 26 countries (79%) indicated that they feel that the Internet is a fundamental human right, BBC story. The data from the survey of 26 countries has other interesting results. The three countries who had the highest percentage who believed the internet was a fundamental right were: South Korea (96%), Mexico (94%), and China (87%). In Canada 77% of respondents felt that the internet should be a fundamental right of all people, while 64% of Canadian respondents stated that they could “cope without the Internet”. Other interesting findings were the most valued aspect of the internet (In Canada: communication, overall: finding information), should the internet be regulated by government (somewhat higher in Canada than overall) and aspects of the internet that cause the most concern (Canada and overall: Fraud followed closely by violent and explicit content) . Lastly about one-third or respondents felt that the internet was a good place to find a boyfriend/girlfriend, I’m not sure if that ties into the fundamental right question or not………. View the results for yourself.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on March 12, 2010 (boomark / email).