Access to Internet not a human right, says ‘Father of Internet’
by J. M. Tuazon, InterAksyon.com
January 8, 2012
 MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to what the United Nations had declared in the middle of last year, Internet access is not necessarily a human right in itself, according to one of the “Fathers of the Internet.”

In an opinion piece published by the New York Times on Thursday, Google VP and Chief Internet Evangelist Vinton G. Cerf said that while the Internet has empowered individuals around the world to realize their own human rights, access to it should not be considered a human right in itself.

The 68-year-old computer scientist cited recent uprisings in the Middle East dubbed as the “Arab Spring,” where protests against iron-fisted dictators were mounted with the help of the Internet.

Cerf, the man largely credited as one of the designers of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) framework, which now powers most of the Internet, said the argument that the Internet has become so essential that it falls under the “human right” category misses the larger point that technology is a mere enabler of rights.

“There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience,” Cerf asserted.

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