The Use of the Internet around the World - Essay Example

?Free Speech In the 20th and 21st century, Internet access has been made possible by technology and service plans. It has been brought by changes in innovation and drastic industrial revolution; this has made consumer use become popularized through the dial-up connections, which facilitated marketing of products and communication globally using the term broadband. The U.N fights for Internet rights by declaring them as a human right for the universe to be able to access basic information and communication services (Hayes 98). Use of Internet around the world has grown rapidly due to the market saturation and growth of industrialized countries. This has brought growth to countries such as Brazil, Caribbean and the Middle East. It has grown tremendously with a margin of over a billion users in the past ten years from 670 million to 1.9 billion users. In order to promote accessibility to the nation, the government has invested large amounts of dollars to breach the gap that is between people with access to the Internet and those without (Hayes 108). By providing access to the Internet, more people are able to take advantage of political, economic, social and carrier opportunities. Internet democracy should be promoted as every citizen has an equal right and say in decisions affecting their lives and development of law legislation. Oppressive regimes such as China have taken measures to squash political opposing of Internet accessibility to its citizens in order to protect their interest. The regimes arbitrary blocks and filters information make their own rules and block Internet access during political unrest. They justify that cutting off users from accessing the Internet is a means of protecting individuals’ status, counter terrorism and national security, while it is a violation of human rights treaties. According to the U.N Internet access and human rights, all nations should ensure Internet accessibility should be maintained always including times of political unrest for individuals to be updated on the things that are unfolding in the country (Kant 105). They put emphasis on amending laws that authorizes users to have full access of the Internet, and cease the regime nations from disconnecting its citizen from the use of the Internet. Given that use of the Internet is an indispensable tool in the realization of human right, accelerating human progress and development, combating equality and ensuring Internet access should be a major priority for all nations globally. Each nation should build up a strong foundation and maintain effective policy while still consulting with citizens from all regions of the country, including local citizens, private sectors and the government ministries, to make the Internet available all over and affordable to all sections of the population (Kant 162). A customer’s online activity is a part of the human right of accessing the Internet freely (Kant 168). One can post an article, video or any relevant material in a site of their choice. Posting of materials on the Internet needs caution depending on the material posted, and site one chooses to post it because they can either impact positively or negatively to another party leading to Internet crime or a court case. In order to avoid these conflicts, a customer identification program has been established for identification of the person who posts in the website. This helps facilitate prevention of cyber crimes, implicating other parties and financing of illegal activities. Customer identification programme helps curb crimes committed online, an example; a manufacturer with an order to manufacture products for a recognized company may knowingly over-run the order volume and put on the market the excessive items at a throw away price in another market. The same commodity may be sold yet in another market at a different price in a parallel trading process. This encourages advertising and selling of fake products in the market through the Internet, and by creation of Customer identification programme, it helps curb these practices. Digital technology simplifies Internet use for illegally downloading copyrighted material such as films and music. By the same means, it makes it easy to copy and transmit these pirated materials globally. The best means used is through peer-to-peer sharing of applications in social networks. To curb this, improvised sites have been created to facilitate downloads of materials at a set price and advertising elements chosen for free downloads. This downloads are a part of the original and are not worth the value of the original content. This helps curb piracy of materials and to differentiate between a sample and an original material. The UN has anticipated sound guidelines to be enforced to defend free expression arguing that censorship of content online must be transparent and enforced only through the courts (Danhof 42). The Internet varies in different dimensions; online access content, this is the with no restriction to any information except in certain limited situations that have been permitted under the international laws of human rights and availability of required infrastructures and information technologies such as computers, modems and software required for Internet access (Danhof 69). Beyond simply arguing that access to the net is a brilliant idea, there is a need for member states to prioritize the accessibility as a factor of human right. They emphasise that the transformative and unique nature of the Internet enables individuals to exercise their freedom and the right to freedom of opinion thus promoting progress of the society as a whole. Freedom of expression, in itself, is not a human right rather it shows its importance to the global society. Counter terrorism oppressive regimes such as China; have taken measures to squash political opposing of Internet accessibility to its citizens in order to protect their interest (Danhof 168). The regimes arbitrary blocks and filters information make their own rules and block Internet access during political unrest. They justify that cutting off users from accessing the Internet is a means of protecting individuals’ status, counter terrorism and national security, yet in the real sense, they are violating the rights of individuals by restricting their access to the Internet. The Internet is a fundamental tool for enabling free speech and no bans should be imposed to it for prevention of accessibility. The use of Internet around the world has grown rapidly due to the market saturation and growth of industrialized countries, and a large percentage is using it for their daily activities (Danhof 69). The freedom to have and access the Internet should be universal and no individual or state should be held back from accessing the Internet due to any government interest, instead the government should emphasize on transformative and unique nature of the Internet to enable individuals to exercise their freedom, and the right to freedom of opinion thus promoting progress of the society as a whole. Works Cited Danhof, Clarence H. Change in Internet Accessibility, 2007. The Northern United States: Cambridge Publishers. Print. Hayes, Lincoln. Initiatives to Promote Global Internet Freedom, 2009. London: Oxford Publishers. Print. Kant, Immanuel. Internet Access and Human Right, 2008. Berlin: Wilder Publications. Print. Read More