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Policy

If Access to Internet is Basic Human Right, Then What About Access to Internet Porn?

Nick Gillespie | 3.8.2010 8:04 AM

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A global survey of 27,000 people in 26 countries finds that "four in five people around the word believe that web access is a fundamental human right," reports the UK Telegraph (note: That finding is only summarized in the headline, not the body of the text for some reason). I'm not sure how to take that: Does that mean people should have free Internet, as the story implies, or does it mean that all people everywhere should have a right to create or buy Internet access free of government controls?

On the latter point, there's this heartening thought:

Seventy-eight per cent pollsters believe that the web gave them greater levels of freedom. This belief was most popular with the US respondents, who were also the respondents that were the most confident to express their opinions openly online….

Government regulation was not viewed as the correct method to solve [privacy, fraud, and hacking] issues, with over half of the 27,000 respondents agreeing that that internet "should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere".

More here.

Hat tip: Twitter feed of Milo Yiannopoulis.

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Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

PolicyTechnologyRegulationInternetCensorshipNanny StateScience & TechnologyCivil Liberties
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