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OK, here's my rewrite. I've tried to keep most of your points intact and focused on making the writing flow a little better. I also changed a few things around that I felt didn't work as well, but overall I've tried to stay true to your ideas. I would still recommend looking into things like the Digital Divide, but 1000 words might not be enough to really do justice to such a big issue. Let me know if you have any questions.

Should we recognize internet access a fundamental right?

The internet is increasingly indispensable for those who use it. A recent survey conducted by the BBC found that nearly eighty percent of all people, from first world to developing nations, believe that internet access should be a fundamental right. Looking at the dependence of the homeless on internet access, and its positive effect on their quality of life, writer and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow makes the bold prediction that within five years, the United Nations will hold a convention to enshrine network access as a human right.

The proposition may seem overreaching, but it is necessary. While the internet may not seem to be as crucial a right as those identified in documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the existence of other problems in the world does not diminish the need for such an important recognition. By expanding the amount of users and possibly lowering prices, declaring internet access a human right would bring benefits to individuals in both developing and first world countries.

Fundamental Rights as Expressions of Belief

Modern understanding of human rights generally comes from natural law. They are seen as grounded in cultural norms and morality, and are the set of individual liberties retained in a Hobbesian social contract. Legal realists, on the other hand, interpret them to be enshrined in positive law originating from a strong political consensus. They see a social institution reflecting the norms and values of cultures.

Just as values evolve over time, rights do as well. The right to be free from slavery is an instructive example. The ancient Greeks and Romans did not recognize a right to be free from slavery, and even the United States, a nation founded on the declaration that all individuals have a right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” did not abolish the institution until the Civil War. It is now, however, universally condemned, even if it continues to exist in some forms.

While it may be unsettling that some of the rights we take for granted are not guaranteed, by embracing this reality we can advocate for firmer commitments to their enforcement and to the enforcement of other necessary rights. Internet access is a right that would greatly benefit from such a position, and although declaring it a right would not necessarily guarantee it to all potential users, it would be a crucial step on the road to universal access.

Benefits of Internet Access Rights

In 2009, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that access to the internet is a fundamental right when it struck down a law allowing the government to deny internet access to illegal downloaders before they were proven guilty in court. The ruling found the right to internet access in Article 11 of the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, which stated that “the free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man.” By recognizing internet access as a right the Council linked it with notions of freedom, equality, and speech that are commonly associated with other traditional rights. It lends support to viewing the internet as a vital public infrastructure, and prioritizes making it widely and cheaply available to users to guarantee their freedoms.

If internet access gains recognition as a right, regulation to ensure that it is fully enjoyed by as universal an audience as possible may become more politically feasible. A prescient regulatory scheme can improve and expand internet access, as is seen in France, even though the regulations occurred before the Council’s declaration. While the country used to lag behind the developed world in the cost and speed of internet service, changes to regulations in 2001 encouraging competition among internet providers have improved internet access dramatically. Recent studies show that the average French internet user gets 4 times the connection speed of American users, at a fraction of the price. Open access policies, in the United States and in developing countries, can benefit the price and quality of global internet access in a similar way. Recognizing the internet as a fundamental right can provide support for similar regulations that have been proposed to encourage competition among internet services providers. It can also give persuasive political force to make regulatory changes that prohibit internet service providers from discriminating against certain types of internet traffic. These are all examples of the inherent value in declaring internet access a fundamental right.

Guiding Future Development

The language of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares the right to “hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”. It contains even stronger language than Article 11 of the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, and it is crucial that internet access should be recognized as a right under the Article.

Internet use in the developing world is increasing at a dramatic rate, and declaring internet access a basic human right will serves as an important impetus for further growth. By deterring internet and information censorship, as well as encouraging the prioritization of information services infrastructure to developing countries, the declaration of internet access a human right will help ensure greater enjoyment of this right." While the internet is a tool for communication, our freedom to information is only as good as the access to sources, and our ability to communicate. Every denial of such tools harms the right to information. The internet offers the greatest means of accessing to information and reaching an audience, and it is becoming as indispensable as speech itself . We should therefore declare it a fundamental right vital to the future development of global society.