Last June 2011, the United Nation declares that access to the internet is a human right and disconnecting people from it is a violation and against to international law. Internet access gives a person a possibility to access information online that caters to his or her interest. It can be entertainment, lifestyle, news, opinion, etc and it gives that person express him or herself with social media such as blog, twitter, facebook and others.
During my delegation at the ON l OFF: ASEAN Bloggers Exchange in Jakarta, Indonesia, I had the chance to gain friends from other countries and understand their online presence. In terms of internet access, Philippines may be the most democratic country. We can access the internet in a minimal cost of P10 or $0.25 per hour in most of the internet café near schools, but for only P50 or $1.05 a person can have unlimited access to the internet for a day with a prepaid wireless broadband stick that most of the mobile network provider offers here. And of course we have malls and establishments such as food chains, bookstores and function area that offer free WIFI access.
While for other countries such as Vietnam where Facebook were band, Malaysia is now struggling on using social media to use as alternative source of information and news where especially that their election is near. Almost 5, 000 blogs/websites were shut down in Thailand during the political conflict in their country and still some are still inaccessible. For Cambodia, Laos and Brunei their ISP were controlled by their government and most of their content were monitored and restricted. As for Indonesia and Singapore they have the liberty to access the internet according to their needs and having the freedom to express their opinions online.
Aside from some of the ASEAN countries that experienced restrictions and censorship, countries in the Middle East, and even Russia and others experienced more of these violations in the internet. There are cases that some were imprisoned and even killed because they use social media as a vehicle of airing their political opinions. And during the conference in Netherlands for Internet Freedom US State Secretary Hillary Clinton challenges everyone on how to utilize internet and social media for the goodness of the government and private sectors. Telling them that social media is not an enemy but a partner on how to reach out to more people in terms of products, services and projects of their company.
In the Philippines, we saw how social media works especially during the election where it became a source of news and reports in areas that it is unreachable on news agencies, it became a vehicle for feedbacks and comments during the presidential debate in 2010. During calamity such as typhoons, internet was used to send reports and help to those unreachable areas due to flood, it was also an option for Filipinos to locate their love ones who was affected by tsunami in Japan, earthquake in Haiti and many more. With the internet it makes everyone closer, information faster and easy to reach those who are in need. Social media evolves from a usual personal space to a more meaningful vehicle in doing good things for others. This is what I call Online Bayanihan or simple the culture of online advocacy.
Let’s promote internet access as a human right, but we also keep in mind that we should be responsible in what we are posting. They might be a freedom of expression, but too much of it is not good especially if we are posting can actually offend others and affects our credibility online. Accountability is the idea here, we should be accountable of what we are posting online after all it reflects what kind of person you are.
Again Empowering Human Rights Day to all. Whether it is internet freedom, universal education, gender equality, women and child rights, and others together let’s uphold it.
