At the beginning of the current pandemic, COVID-19 was referred to by Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as a ‘public health emergency… an economic crisis. A social crisis. And a human crisis that is fast becoming a human rights crisis’.1 So far COVID-19 has proved Guterres right with many freedoms having been restricted in the name of keeping the public safe. As more people have been pushed to cease mixing and to remain inside access to reliable internet has emerged as being almost indispensable from continuing a semblance of ordinary life. This article will look at how internet access has come to be seen as a human right and how it has been utilised during the pandemic. It will also discuss disparities in accessing the internet as well as considering some solutions to this.
The importance of being connected to the internet has now been an issue on the international stage for quite some time with the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression presenting a report to the UN General Assembly in May 2011, which drew attention to ‘the unique and transformative nature of the Internet’ pointing to its capacity to ‘promote the progress of society as a whole’.2 The provision of universal and affordable internet access for Less Developed Country’s was also included in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals under 9c when they were launched in 2015, further highlighting the importance placed on the internet for advancing sustainable development.3 Further to this, whilst objected to by the more authoritarian countries such as Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and India, the right to the internet was added under section 32 to article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined the ‘promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the internet’.4 However, it should be noted that this is regarded as a ‘soft law’ which does not possess any enforcement mechanisms to govern the legislation.
It would seem that this focus on elevating the importance of the internet has paid dividends during the COVID-19 crisis with Human Rights Watch pointing to access to the internet as enabling ‘the rights to education, health, and religion’ through video streamed classes and worships as well as telemedicine and general access to information such as e-health services that can help reduce the spread of the virus.5 In line with restrictions from governments across the world many businesses have advised employees to work from home where possible, with Microsoft reporting the number of people using its software for online collaboration increasing by nearly 40% in just a week.6 Even whole governments have found themselves at the deference of the internet in order to keep functioning adequately, with the UK government setting up teleconferencing facilities in the House of Commons in order for each MP to continue participating in debates and to ‘keep democracy going’.7 Prior to the pandemic the Federation of Small Businesses found that 94% of small business owners rated a reliable internet connection as being critical for the success of their business. Further to this, the Confederation of British Industry also found that over 90% of businesses believe digital technologies to be crucial for increasing productivity. In addition to this, it is estimated that a million people in the UK alone could enter into the jobs market with a secure internet connection that would allow them to work from home, helping those who have traditionally been shut out of the jobs market, such as those with home commitments or disabilities.8 Now with people being advised to work from home the number of those being pushed out of work has most likely risen, with more having to continue working from the office and potentially being put at unnecessary risk. This issue has been raised by the European Parliament President, David Sassoli, who has stated that ‘lack of access to the internet, for geographical, economic or social reasons, has proved to be a major cause of marginalisation’ with the pandemic also proving to further widen the digital divide.9
Disparities in internet access are due to a range of factors such as geographic, economic and age-related. One such case in which the COVID-19 pandemic has effected internet access, in particular, is through the closure of libraries, something which is believed to affect older rather than younger people as well as those on low incomes. For example, nearly 70% of people access the internet through public Wi-Fi; 20% of whom access the internet through the library.10 In addition to this, libraries have also provided services such as digital literacy sessions which allow people to get online and stay online, services which have been cut or reduced due to COVID-19. In many places, geography plays a large part in how reliable an internet connection is with many in rural parts of developed countries, such as America and Australia, suffering from unreliable and intermittent connections that severely affect the capacity to learn and work remotely, increasing the probability of getting left behind and exacerbating the digital divide.11 Lastly, and most ubiquitously, is the economic barrier to the internet that has been reported by Cisco to comprise the vast majority of the ‘offline population’.12 A stark example of this issue is the fact that in sub-Saharan Africa 1GB of data would cost 40% of the average monthly wage, in South Africa only the wealthiest 20% can afford basic internet access, costing between 6% and 20% of a South Africans monthly wage.13 14 However, affordability is also an issue experienced in developed countries with research conducted by Cambridge University finding that only 51% of households earning £6,000 to £10,000 a year have home internet access in comparison to 99% earning over £40,000.15 Elsewhere, in America 15% of households do not have internet, with 80% of teachers in Australia believing that a student’s ‘socio-economic circumstances’ impacted on a child’s access to the technology needed for learning.16 17
During COVID-19 many solutions have been implemented in order to supply people with the internet. As part of an initiative in Uruguay 120,000 houses were given 50GB of data free in April to help assist with homeworking. Also in South America, Colombia and Peru have declared internet, as part of telecommunications services to be ‘essential’ and have therefore implemented policies banning the suspension of internet due to lack of payment for as long as a state of emergency is in effect.18 Alternatively, in the United States, the House of Representatives have introduced emergency legislation called the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, requiring internet service providers to offer free broadband services to COVID-19 impacted people, who will then be compensated by the government.19 Whilst these initiatives, and others like it in different countries are extraordinarily helpful for those without internet, many of the schemes are COVID dependent and will leave people in the same position as they were in when the pandemic ends. What is needed is more long-lasting solutions such as the steps made by Finland who declared broadband access a legal right in 2010, which distributed subsidies in order to cover the remaining 4% of the country.20 In addition to this, there is also a need for nuanced tailored approaches such as the Wi-Fi on Wheels scheme implemented in the rural Coachella Valley Unified School District in California which converted school buses into solar-powered Wi-Fi routers in order to supply underserved neighbourhoods with 24/7 internet access.21
In today’s world, it could be reasonably argued that not only should the internet be universally affordable and available as a means of ensuring our fundamental human rights to equality, education and expression, it should also be seen as ‘a basic necessity for economic and human development in both developed and developing countries’ as described by the World Bank. In the same document, the World Bank stated that raising Internet penetration from 35% to 75% all developing countries ‘would add as much as US$2 trillion to their collective gross domestic product (GDP) and create more than 140 million jobs around the world’ meaning that universal internet should be pursued as a matter of priority.22
