Human Right to Connect

I saw a random factoid on Facebook that I know hundreds of people will take the wrong way: “A United Nations report said that disconnecting people from the internet is a human rights violation.”

They do not mean your right to bitch about first world problems on Facebook and Twitter. They do not mean leveling up on Candy Crush or checking your fantasy football stats.

Cutting people off from the internet cuts them off from global communication. They don’t know what’s going on in the news, world politics, and even other parts of their own country. Maybe they’re at war with someone else and their country is misreporting how it’s going. Maybe their country is engaging in some serious human rights violations and they have no way of reporting it to the outside world.

If you can’t get in touch with the outside world, how would you even know what is considered a human rights violation? Lack of communication also gives the ability to brainwash citizens or create Stockholm syndrome. If the nation they must love and follow tells them they have it better than the corrupt and dying [western nation to be hated that week], how are they going to know better?

North Korea severely restricts communication with the outside world allowing only a few flights to and from China a month. I saw a documentary in college about life in North Korea and they basically brainwash their citizens. The more loyal to the state you’ve proven to be, the better your life but you have no choice in the matter and no way of knowing another way of life.

Music: Shattered Faith by Bad Religion