Bill of Rights in Cyberspace

There are many Bills of Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example.

Jeff Jarvis is working on a Bill of Rights for the internet:

I. We have the right to connect.
II. We have the right to speak freely.
III. We have the right to assemble and act.
IV. Information should be public by default, secret by necessity.
V. What is public is a public good.
VI. All bits are created equal.
VII. The internet shall be operated openly.

I think he’s more on the right track than anyone else.

Corporations often try to deny you those rights to maximize their profits. Especially internet service providers.

Politicians try to deny you those rights when corporate lobbyists buy their votes.

Citizens will have to demand their “rights” online, or they’ll be eroded. … Imagine a nation where you must log-in to the internet with a passport, and the only website you can access is the Central Propaganda Department.

Read more – Bill of Rights in Cyberspace, amended

Things are getting worse on the internet right now. I’d like to think it will sort itself out in the end. Eventually people will demand freedom. Politicians will still pocket money from lobbyists, but explain they can only do so much.

One thought on “Bill of Rights in Cyberspace

  1. Anne's avatar Anne

    I’d start here:

    I. The internet shall be operated openly.
    II. All individuals have the right to connect
    III. Where access is limited by the carrying capacity of physical equipment, quantity of access to individuals shall exceed that of organizations, and shall be allotted evenly.
    III. All individuals and organizations have the right to transmit information of any sort, so long as:
    A. S/he or they identify their physical selves, and
    B. The information transmitted is:
    i. truthful, or
    ii. if not truthful, then labelled prominently as fiction, and
    C. S/he or they do not promote hatred, racism or physical harm to individuals.

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