BBC poll: the internet is a ‘right’
April 16, 2010 at 3:47 pm
The BBC recently launched its ‘Superpower’ season, which is dedicated to the power of the internet in our lives. As part of the season it carried out a huge global poll which discovered that of the 27,000 adults in 26 countries questioned, three-quarters believe that access to the internet is now a fundamental human right.
Nearly 79% of the respondents said that they ‘strongly agreed’ or ‘somewhat agreed’ with the internet being a fundamental right. When it came to internet users, 87% said it should be a right; 70% of non-users agreed with them.
The survey, carried out by GlobeScan for the BBC, paints a clear picture of the importance that the internet now has for us. Whereas just over a decade ago the revolution was only just picking up pace, now many people simply couldn’t survive without being connected.
Indeed, three-quarters of the people questioned in Mexico, Russia and Japan said that the internet was vital to their lives and that they couldn’t cope without being connected.
The highest support for the statement that the internet is now a fundamental right came from Turkey, Brazil and Mexico. In Turkey, 90% said that it was a fundamental right.
78% of those questioned around the world also agreed that the internet provided them with greater freedom.
Speaking to the BBC, the secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, Hamadoun Toure, said that “the internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created”. The results of the survey would seem to agree with that statement.
