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Article

25 Jan 2019

Author:
Kira Allmann & Anasuya Sengupta, OpenGlobalRights

Commentary: Meaningful human rights of the internet need to recognize power imbalances & whose knowledge is represented online

"Beyond internet access: seeking knowledge justice online," 22 Jan 2019

 Systems of power and privilege determine whose knowledge is represented online and whose voices are heard... Women, people of color, and people from the global South are together the majority of the world and the majority of the online population, but for those of us in these groups, our knowledges and power over our knowledges—in the realms of internet content, ownership, and design—are strikingly absent. Our invisibility online starts in the development of internet infrastructure, extends to connectivity and access, and continues in content creation... [W]hat would a human right to the internet look like, beyond access?

As human rights activists, we have a doubly challenging task in front of us: first, to deconstruct the mythology of the internet that assumes the internet is inherently democratic, participatory, and emancipatory; and second, to simultaneously strive toward an internet that lives up to its inclusive potential... The internet should be central to our human rights debates, but we have to move beyond... access... or expression.... Meaningful human rights of the internet need to recognize the power imbalances built into this system, including at the point of access. [refers to Alphabet, Google & Microsoft]