[pp.int.general] The right to protest

[Andy Halsall]

On Saturday 30 June 2012 17:10:28 Richard Stallman wrote:
>     As much as I hate to say it, the internet is not a human right. The
>     right to peacefully assemble IS a human right.
> 
> When we live a substantial part of our lives in the Internet, the
> right to assemble includes the right to assemble in the Internet.

This is off-topic from the initial point on protest but...

The point to be made is that there are more people without access to clean water than with access to the internet, more people without access to electricity than are able to get online regularly.  Indeed most people don't live a substantial part of their lives on the internet, only about 30% have any access at all.  

As such I don't think it is 'access to the internet' that is a human right as such, nor should it be.  The freedom to communicate should be, the freedom to assemble, by whatever means, should be.  Access to the sum of human/societal knowledge and culture should be.  Most of the rights that should mean that access to the internet is a human right already exist, but like the encroachment of private ownership on the commons (and so protest) there are lots of ways that the right is being attacked, or indeed being 'balanced' with other interests.

In any case, those freedoms, like so much else need be independent of medium and expressed as such, otherwise they are too easy to get around or squash.  It would also mean that we have to try and explain why the internet is special to people who don't know yet what is possible with it.

The important part really is about what the internet is like when it is more accessible, which it will become. That foundation is being built now, which is why things like ACTA and SOPA (and a myriad of others) are such a problem. These approaches may define what the internet looks like when we have 50% or more of a global population with access to it and beyond.  If we end up with it being seen as a content delivery system, a system on which no-one has no right to privacy (and conversely where the law doesn't apply..) then we will have lost a great opportunity.  More to the point, we may end up establishing a framework that simply allows a transfer of power from one 'elite' to another.

What we need from politicians are principles first. What we need that to translate into is real openness and an impact on technical implementations, a drive toward interoperability, open standards and the possibility that anyone who wants to get involved can get involved.  That's policy, and it can't be just about the internet, it has to be available to everyone, especially the 70% or so who currently don't have access, because they are the same people who are so badly disenfranchised now.

So back on topic...

If we have a free and open internet, and people have access to it, it removes a fairly large selection of tools from any regime or government that aims to set the tone by controlling information, whether it does so like China or more like the US.  We already seeing that have an impact to some extent and we have seen how governments are reacting to it.

So, a big part of protest is to make a noise and get people to notice an issue, to present information, to defeat a misconception and to show discontent. All of that is communication.  The internet is a way to do that communicating, from one to many, in a massively more efficient way than other methods, but it isn't necessarily as effective (depending on the issue..).  Not because you don't have reach, but because of the kind of reach you have.  

With a protest (or knocking on doors..) you contact people who wouldn't normally seek you out.  That's really important in a world where more and more information is becoming available, but where people (and systems) are creating little oases of similar ideas and thought. 

Anyway, 1am here and I shouldn't send mails this late because I lose my thread (sorry for the wall of text)..


Cheers.


-- 
Andy Halsall
Campaigns Officer
Pirate Party UK
+44 (0) 7505111705

For more information on the Pirate Party UK, please visit our website at 
http://www.pirateparty.org.uk.  If you wish to receive regular press 
statements from the Party (or no longer wish to receive them) please email the 
Press Office at press at pirateparty.org.uk.  The Pirate Party UK is a political 
party registered at 11, 45 Streatham Hill, London, SW2 4TS, United Kingdom.
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