Today, Vint Cerf, chief internet evangelist for Google, had an op-ed piece in the New York Times where he boldly declares internet access is not a human right, and provides an anachronism to demonstrate the weight required to elevate something to the status of a civil or human right:
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. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it.
However, Vint Cerf recalls one lesson from history yet ignores another.
