The Civil Right of Internet Access… Broadband Required in the Modern State

It’s being enshrined in some countries as a legal right of all citizens. Finland, for example, announced last week that it was moving up its timetable to next year from 2015 for guaranteeing broadband access to all, according to YLE, the Finnish broadcasting company.

The FCC has just recently a released a report speaking to the importance of an internet connection.

Education, Jobs, Small Business, Health Care, Economic Development, Consumer Welfare… Two topics, among others, consistently left out of a quantitative analysis are

1. Ensuring Government & Media Transparency

2. Enabling Modern Application of Free Speech

Agents -of and for- the government have had a tenuous relationship with the web. Ron Paul became a fundraising hero (and started the Campaign for Liberty PAC with unspent $) , Sarah Palin and her runaway viral videos (of which on this video I keep getting a pop-up for Sarah PAC .. Doh!),  Glenn Beck called out for erroneous logic with didglennbeckrapeandmurderayounggirlin1990.com , the infamous BART shooting peppering YouTube, Obama’s still unfulfilled promise to post bills for five days, and hundreds of other examples of keeping influential members of society honest. Social media sites, like Digg or Reddit, aggregated news and actually turn it into a social activity. But the point still stands that time and again, important news stories have are able to garner attention if the Mainstream Media fails to highlight them. Obscure issues may be raised that ultimately pan out like the fraudulent activities of a  public official, such as the emerging story of Congressman Buyer from Indiana.  He allegedly received nearly $880,000 for a scholarship fund, that for years hasn’t given a student a scholarship. My point is that there is an economic analysis to the FCC logic that holds great weight, but it must not ignore the new role of the 4th Branch of Government as the “Watchdog of Society”.  This value is massive.

Second, modern free speech is linked with the internet. Police have become experts at quashing dissent for example at the Pittsburgh G20 or the Iranian Elections. The Twitter Revolution as dubbed by the media, enabled the dissent to speak to citizens and to the world in plea for help.  In my opinion, it was the first major use of the internet in a Humanitarian crisis. It won’t be the last, nor is it safe. In a most ironic twist noted by Reuters, after the Iranian riots calmed, American Police seized a Twitter member! Unbridled Free Speech has the incalculable value similar to that of government oversight.

According to the FCC 96% of households now some type of access to broadband with a sizable portion still relegated to using public facilities for access. In the chart below, the FCC shows were the current systems falls woefully short for many powerful applications.

What do South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Malta, Iceland, Australia,  and Lithuania have in common? They all beat America in a 2009 Broadband Study.

Modern high speed internet facilitates economic growth and supports the public welfare. Further, it is stifled by a private, government granted, monopolistic communication culture. It is utterly apparent that the internet is now a vital tool for a member of society and needs statutory protection.

Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Finland is the world’s first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access.

Should America go beyond pressuring the FCC to regulate change? Objectively, for such a crucial service every person should be at minimum eligible. Subjectively, it costs me $44.99 a month for the lowest internet connection that can handle streaming video, which also gets capped if I use to much  - ridiculous.

First things first, lets keep the internet open; this discussion is largely moot if it becomes censored. Vic and Kim are ACLU lawyers here in Pittsburgh who work diligently on behalf of our rights.

I touched several issues in this post and I do realize its tangential nature. I think you could tease out dozens of sub-topics, but the point is to get people thinking about what types of freedom the internet truly endows.  I feel confident that the exponential growth of the internet will one day mean that it becomes of such fundamental importance that rights surrounding its use would become the issue of its time.