Ask Lemmy

There is an argument to be made for that yeah

Read - yes | write - no

I don't think it's as serious as "denying their right to exist," but the more things require an online presence, I think more that online access should be guaranteed. Or, if it's not guaranteed, it should be illegal for a service deemed necessary or even important to only exist online. Both are slippery slopes. Like, my cell carrier (Visible, an MVNO by Verizon) does not have phone support. They have support on Twitter and Facebook, and in their app via chat. Verizon will not help you even though they own Visible. But, carriers with phone support do exist and we are free to pay (a lot) more to choose one of them. But we each pay $30 a month for Visible and we are happy with them. No family plans. Everyone pays their own line. I think they start a little less, we have the middle plan.

Computers? To include smartphones? I dunno. I'm afraid for a world in which every citizen must carry a smartphone, and if you cannot afford an iPhone, you have to carry an Android phone, with all the spyware that comes with it (and one issued by the government would probably have even more). So yeah, you have a mobile computer in your pocket, but it tracks you everywhere, shows you ads, and probably runs like shit. That's not to dump on Android flagships; that's a whole other can of worms. But I also see people using cracked and otherwise beat up iPhones to avoid all the tracking BS, but sometimes they cut themselves on the chipped glass back. Like a real dystopian cyberpunk aesthetic. Wake the fuck up samurai, we have a city to burn. But don't cut yourself on that edge. Or let the corpo-rats track you right up to their front door.

In my country, we have that I think.

Several banks and gorernment functions are only accessible via internet, so it the state's rsponsibility to assure every resident has internet access.

Not amazing internet access, or even "good", but access.

Some places you have to bus to the nearest library during opening hours to use one of the freely accessible terminals, but it's free and available. You can also apply to have the bus ticket refunded if you're really struggling.

Don't see why it should be

Considering where we are due to cheap and accessible internet, no.

It doesn't need to be in every world, but it does in this one, where so much shit you need is only on the computer. Some things they simply do not stock in stores anymore.

What would that accomplish? Designating something as a human right doesn't decommodify the thing, nor does it magically make it infinite.

No one is denying anyone access to the internet and a computer.

And no, it shouldn’t be a human right, that’s ridiculous.