Introduction
In 1996, John Perry Barlow wrote the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Barlow was clearly inspired by the Declaration of Independence created by the Founding Fathers of the United States. The central idea in both declarations is a community of people’s right to govern itself and be free from the authority of a separate and distant political entity.
In the case of the United States, that entity was Great Britain. However, in the case of cyberspace, it encompasses all the countries of the world, especially the industrialized nations. In his declaration, Barlow’s vision reflected the hopes associated with the Internet during its early years of expansion.
Many at the time saw the Internet as a tool that created a parallel virtual world to our real one. This new world appeared to be beyond the control of traditional states and their ability to impose laws. Many dreamed that this virtual space would allow people to freely exercise their sovereignty over their destinies by expressing their opinions and exchanging information freely.
Many now consider Barlow’s vision in the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace unrealistic. However, at least Barlow did not exaggerate his perception of the Internet’s impact on human life, perhaps vice versa. What has happened in the three decades since Barlow’s declaration has surpassed all his expectations and those of his contemporaries regarding scale, scope, and depth.
While the Internet is undoubtedly the most prominent, important, and influential of all digital technologies, it is not the only one that has invaded our lives and permeated every aspect of them. The Internet occupies a central position at the heart of a digital system that extends to every aspect of life today. If we were to choose a single description that most accurately reflects the rapidly evolving world around us, no one would dispute calling it “the digital world.”
The increasing reliance of each individual on digital technology makes the freedom to access the manifestations of these technologies a vital necessity. This reality, in itself, creates the need to protect everyone’s right to access this technology freely. Additionally, our virtual presence in the public space created by the Internet presents new challenges for protecting many of our fundamental rights.
Our privacy faces new challenges that no one could have imagined three decades ago. Billions of people exercise their right to freedom of expression with varying degrees through hundreds of the most popular websites and applications on the Internet. They engage in various social and economic activities online, with millions performing their jobs through the network. Some carry out traditional job functions remotely via the Internet, while others engage in tasks that were not available before the advent of the network.
This paper argues that the evolution of digital technology is reshaping our world and creating a digital world in which our digital identities become much more than names or labels for social media accounts, email services, and instant messaging. Our digitally stored data is spread across countless servers held by many government and private institutions.
These data form a virtual existence for each of us. This existence is inseparable from our physical existence and, therefore, represents us as much as our bodies do. This means that we are physically and realistically vulnerable to the violation of many of our rights through our digital existence. This paper claims that it is only within this vision that we can understand what digital rights mean and recognize their importance.
The paper presents a theoretical conceptualization of digital rights. The first section addresses an approach to understanding digital rights, starting with an overview of some important milestones in the evolution of the concept until today. It then reviews the values and principles on which digital rights are based.
In the second section, the paper discusses the rights relevant to an individual’s access to the digital world, namely the right to access the Internet and the right to access digital technologies. Finally, the paper discusses how human rights can be reframed in the context of a digital world and addresses civil and political rights as well as economic and social rights.
How to Understand Digital Rights?
The concept of digital rights is still emerging and is not expected to crystallize definitively in the near future. Therefore, any attempt to conceptualize this idea is, in itself, an effort to define it. This means that it is not merely a presentation of an established and agreed-upon definition but rather contributes to shaping the concept itself.
Emergence and Evolution
The concept of digital rights can be traced back to the early beginnings of the Internet in the mid-1990s. John Perry Barlow’s aforementioned Declaration of Independence is an example of several individual initiatives by early Internet pioneers seeking to steer the course of technology to create a free space independent of the control of traditional authorities. Over time, more specialized civil society organizations have emerged, and international initiatives have led to proposals for charters that protect the rights of Internet users and digital rights in a broader sense.
In 2001, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) created the APC Internet Rights Charter. The document’s introduction declares that “the Internet is a global public space that should remain open, affordable, and accessible to all.”
This document emerged from a workshop organized by the League in Prague. The charter is, in fact, an early model for a movement seeking to establish an Internet Bill of Rights. This movement is, in turn, an important component of the broader concept of Digital Constitutionalism.
In 2004, the World Summit on the Information Society adopted a declaration of principles that affirmed the “universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development.” The declaration specifically highlighted the importance of the right to freedom of expression in the information society.
The declaration emphasized that “communication is a fundamental social process, a basic human need, and the foundation of all social organization.” Therefore, “everyone everywhere should have the opportunity to participate, and no one should be excluded from the benefits provided by the information society.”
In 2007, the Dynamic Coalition for an Internet Bill of Rights held a large preparatory forum on Internet rights in Rome. In November of the same year, the Coalition presented its ideas at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This led to a joint declaration by the Coalition and the Forum on Internet Rights. The merger of the coalition with a similar organization resulted in the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, presented at the IGF in Vilnius in 2010.
In 2008, the Global Network Initiative was created. The initiative included several civil society organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Human Rights Watch, and several major technology companies, such as Google and Microsoft.
A number of concerned investors and academics also participated in the initiative. The initiative was launched on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was based on international human rights laws and standards, especially the right to freedom of expression and privacy.
In 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council declared that internet freedom is a human right. This followed ongoing efforts by the Special Rapporteur on promoting and protecting the right to freedom of expression. The Rapporteur presented a report to the Council the previous year advocating for internet access to be recognized as a fundamental human right.
Values and Principles
Digital rights derive their core values and principles from the same values and principles on which the human rights movement was founded more than two centuries ago. In fact, digital rights reclaim the universal character of human rights, which has significantly diminished due to legal formulations that address states as entities representing their citizens. This has left each country with considerable freedom in enacting, realizing, and protecting each right through its own legislation.
Due to the nature of digital technologies, primarily the Internet, digital rights are inherently universal and transcend political borders. Thus, the key values on which digital rights are based are universality and inclusiveness. For digital rights to realize this value, they must include the recognition of the right to digital identity and net citizenship (Netizen), which will be discussed later in the paper.
The value of freedom, in its broad, inclusive, and general sense, is undoubtedly a fundamental value upon which digital rights are built. Digital rights aim to enhance the value of freedom in the digital world, seeking to transcend boundaries and limitations that could not be overcome until now.
The philosophy of digital rights views technology as a liberating factor for humans. For technology to fulfill its hoped-for role in granting humans more freedom, clear digital rights should be recognized to address the challenges created by different practices in the digital world.
In other words, one of the endeavors of digital rights is to restore the freedom-enhancing aspect of digital technology by countering its freedom-restricting uses. This endeavor entails that digital rights reformulate several fundamental rights, such as the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and free access to information.
Various initiatives advocating for the recognition of digital rights have emphasized a wide range of principles, which include:
- Protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms in the context of a digital world. These rights include freedom of expression, access to information, belief, assembly and protest, personal security and human dignity, child protection, non-discrimination, and cultural and linguistic diversity.
- Limiting the authority of the state. Among these limits are democracy and the rule of law, the right to due process, and the right to legal redress.
- Internet governance and community engagement. This includes participatory and multi-stakeholder governance, transparency and openness, open data, participation rights, and digital inclusivity.
- Privacy rights. These include the right to privacy, data protection, self-determination and control, anonymity, protection from surveillance, the right to use encryption, and the right to erasure or to be forgotten.
- Access and education. This includes the right to internet access, speed and affordability, access to skills in the workplace, user awareness and education, and multimedia and digital literacy.
- Network openness and stability. This includes network security, network neutrality, open standards, interoperability and non-fragmentation, network stability and reliability, free and open-source software, and rights related to devices and hardware.
- Economic rights and responsibilities. This includes innovation, competition, economic development, intermediary liability, corporate responsibility, and consumer protection.
Approaches Defining Digital Rights
Different approaches to defining digital rights can discern two main trends. The first trend includes approaches that limit digital rights to guaranteeing the right to free access to the potential provided by digital technology. The most prominent example of these approaches is the endeavor to recognize the Right to Internet Access.
These approaches define digital rights as “human rights and legal rights that enable individuals to access, use, create, and share digital content, or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and communication networks.”
These approaches do not overlook the close relationship between digital rights, as defined, and the protection and realization of recognized fundamental rights, particularly the right to privacy and freedom of expression in the context of using digital technologies.
These approaches see digital technology as creating a public space parallel to the public space in the real world. They are primarily concerned with ensuring individuals’ right to access this space without obstacles freely. They also focus on ensuring that individuals, while present in this virtual public space, have adequate protection for their recognized fundamental rights.
The second trend, which this paper aims to advocate for, is based on the belief that the development of digital technology has initiated a radical and comprehensive transformation of human life. This ongoing change, which has not yet reached a final state, has affected many fundamental concepts upon which our understanding of human rights is built.
This means that the (classical) human rights expressed in foundational documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have changed. These changes include how these rights can be exercised and realized, the challenges to their protection, and the means required to address them. More importantly, this change also encompasses the way we understand these rights.
What characterizes this trend is that it sees digital technology as something other than creating a public space parallel to the public space in the real world. Instead, it argues that digital technology has already invaded and permeated the real world to such an extent that there is no longer a boundary between the virtual and the real world.
In other words, we live in a single world that is both virtual and real at the same time; it is simply a digital world. This digital world, which has not yet been entirely shaped, is moving towards a state where every entity has a digital presence that is inseparable from its existence in reality. This means that humans will not fully complete their real existence without their digital virtual presence. This applies similarly to other entities, including organizations, institutions, and even states.
How does this perspective reflect our understanding and definition of digital rights? First and foremost, digital rights are human rights belonging to individuals with a digital presence inseparable from their real-world existence. These individuals live in a world where everything also has a digital presence.
This new digital world radically differs from the traditional world addressed by human rights charters to date; it transcends political borders between states. This transcendence does not mean the disappearance of these borders but rather that their existence is no longer as decisive and clear-cut as it once was.
In other words, political boundaries in the digital world are less rigid and more complex in terms of their impact on individuals’ and institutions’ lives.
The second distinguishing feature of this world is that states are no longer the only entities that human rights charters aim to obligate to protect and realize the rights of their citizens and ensure that they are not violated. In the digital world, other entities, such as big tech companies, possess powers enabling them to restrict and violate individuals’ digital rights. Therefore, these entities should also be obligated to protect and realize these rights and refrain from violating them.
Digital Rights and Participation in the Digital World
The Right to Access the Internet
Access to the Internet is the key to enabling any individual to participate actively in the digital world. Therefore, the right to this access is the most intuitive and prominent among digital rights. Many justify the need for a human right to Internet access either by emphasizing the benefits it brings or by highlighting the evolution of essential human needs in today’s world.
These perceptions can be seen as reflecting the deepening integration of Internet applications into people’s daily activities. The trajectory of this development in the current reality and the near future calls for us to adopt a more comprehensive stance on the right to access the Internet.
It is not an exaggeration to compare this right in the digital world to the right to life. The right to life is necessary for any individual to enjoy their other rights, and it is inconceivable for someone to enjoy any right without it. In a digital world where various human rights are being redefined based on an individual’s inseparable digital existence, access to the Internet becomes an essential prerequisite for realizing any of their rights.
Many countries today recognize the right to Internet access in various forms and under different conditions. The common denominator among these forms is emphasizing making Internet access attainable for everyone. This means that the financial cost of Internet access services, whether provided by state-owned or private entities, should be within the means of individuals belonging to the lower income brackets of society.
Many legislations also tend to set minimum technical requirements for internet access to be meaningful. These requirements pertain minimum speed, capacity and data limits.
The right to Internet access also serves as an umbrella for several rights that govern the effectiveness of an individual’s digital presence. This right encompasses rights to ensure the network’s stability, sustainability, reliability, and security. It also includes principles of the Internet’s fairness, openness, and neutrality.
The Right to Access Digital Technology
The right to access digital technology can be considered a broader umbrella than the right to Internet access, as it includes various forms of digital technology. Therefore, what has been discussed in the previous section as an entry point for understanding the right to Internet access also applies to other essential digital technologies that enable individuals to manage their digital presence.
Therefore, every individual should have a recognized right to access a minimum set of necessary capabilities for utilizing digital technology applications. This may include providing low-cost public services to access digital devices and equipment that some individuals in society may be unable to afford.
The right to access digital technology also encompasses rights like those mentioned in the previous section. Every individual should have a recognized right to stable, secure, and reliable access to and use of any form of digital technology.
In this context, safeguards should be in place to ensure that no form of digital technology, in terms of design or operational processes, poses any threat to users’ fundamental rights. This is especially important regarding their rights to personal data, protection from surveillance, and other violations.
Digital Rights as a Reformulation of Human Rights in a Digital World
Civil and Political Rights in a Digital World
Digital Identity and the Concept of Net Citizenship
Michael Hauben coined the term “Netizen” in 1996. In Hauben’s view, a Netizen is not just anyone who uses the Internet; instead, a Netizen is someone who actively contributes to the development of the Internet and engages in discussions about its nature and role. In this sense, many early Internet pioneers shared Hauben’s vision of a political community aimed at creating an independent society with its own rules determined by its members to regulate their interactions online.
Hauben’s concept of the Netizen reflects ideas similar to those of John Perry Barlow in the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. On several levels, we can say that our current reality has surpassed the simplicity of this concept. However, this does not mean that our reality has outgrown the fundamental idea behind the notion of the Netizen.
This fundamental idea derives its meaning from the concept of citizenship in the real world. In simple terms, citizenship rights are based on the notion that every individual derives the essentials of their life, including all their human rights, from the community to which they belong. In the context of our physical world, a state represents this community. Thus, the only way for an individual to secure their basic necessities is to hold citizenship in a country as a recognized member of that state.
Hauben’s concept of the Netizen also reflects one of the most essential rights of citizenship: the right to political participation. This means that every citizen has the right to have a voice in determining their destiny through active involvement in the governance and direction of the state and society.
In practice, political participation is realized through the right to elect representatives, the right to run for these positions, and the right to belong to political parties and interest groups that advocate for various societal interests.
In our daily digital world, the need for a new concept of Net Citizenship is closely linked to the notion of digital identity. The concept of digital identity reflects the reality mentioned earlier: that each of us today has a digital presence that is inseparable from our physical existence.
This means that each of our digital identities in the digital world reflects both our physical and digital existences together. In practical terms, managing our digital presence requires a verified and recognized digital identity, similar to the identification documents issued by states to their citizens. Furthermore, acknowledging our digital rights necessitates recognizing us as citizens within the broader entity of the digital network.
What emerges from the previous discussion is the need to recognize the right to a digital identity, which is linked to the rights of Net Citizenship.
- The first right relies on providing means to authenticate our digital existence in a way that protects it from identity impersonation and ensures our rights regarding our data stored in digital forms anywhere on the Internet.
- The second right pertains to Net Citizenship rights, which necessarily include the right to participate through democratic frameworks in decision-making related to Internet governance and the governance of the development and use of digital technology in its broader sense.
Recognizing the right to digital identity and the right to Net Citizenship may be more challenging given the current landscape of Internet governance. In this scene, two main parties are vying for influence over the institutions that determine the fate of the Internet: nation-states on one side and big tech companies on the other. Additionally, different actors, such as international organizations and civil society, play secondary roles, while the participation of ordinary individuals is entirely absent.
The current landscape must be completely overturned for every individual to obtain their right to a recognized digital identity and full citizenship rights online. Achieving this is inconceivable without a genuine struggle led by ordinary individuals, which in turn requires raising awareness among them about the significance of their digital presence and its connection to their lives and futures.
The Right to Privacy
The evolution of our digital presence in recent decades has clearly contributed to the redefinition of the right to privacy. While this right was one of the more ambiguous human rights in the pre-Internet world, various practices brought about by the Internet and other digital technologies have made it more transparent and empowered everyone to recognize its significance.
This has arisen because practical experience has proven that each of our digital presences makes our privacy more susceptible to violation. Our daily activities on social media, for example, significantly blur the boundaries between the public and the private. Additionally, the privacy of our personal data depends on the practices of many entities that we may not even be aware of.
Many countries have enacted legislation protecting the privacy of their citizens and their personal data. However, these legislations will always be limited and insufficient. Conflicts between legislation in different countries often result in citizens losing their rights in one country or another.
Moreover, countries do not have equal capacity to enforce their regulations on big tech companies or to impose significant penalties in case of violations. There is a compelling need to redefine the right to privacy to become a comprehensive, cross-border right more suitable for the digital world. This redefinition should entail international obligations for relevant parties, including tech companies and states.
The right to digital privacy is closely linked to the right to digital identity. The widespread availability of personal data across the Internet and its exposure to unauthorized access by unknown parties is the primary cause of the most prevalent and dangerous forms of digital privacy violations.
In most cases, verifying an individual’s identity requires providing a substantial amount of personal data that is often unnecessary. This need can be eliminated by having a verified and recognized digital identity that allows individuals to prove their identity without providing additional personal data to every website or application they interact with.
The Right to Freedom of Expression
In the visions of early Internet pioneers, the network appeared as a new arena offering an unprecedented level of freedom of expression. While this perception has proven somewhat accurate, it has certainly not manifested in practice as the ideal image envisioned by these pioneers.
As the spaces for expression on the Internet expand and diversify, the parties with the authority to suppress freedom of expression have also diversified. Nowadays, being exposed to content blocking on social media platforms has become a daily experience for most users.
Using AI algorithms as a substitute for human intervention in content moderation creates countless absurd situations where content is unjustly blocked, and individuals face account suspensions or cancellations for baseless reasons. In the current landscape, the right to freedom of expression has shifted from a struggle against state authority and local powers to a confrontation with tens of entities, each imposing different rules and standards.
This reality necessitates a redefinition of the right to freedom of expression, similar to the previously discussed regarding the right to privacy. This means we need to recognize a right to freedom of expression that is comprehensive and transcends political boundaries, encompassing clear obligations for all parties with the authority to moderate content in its various forms, whether digital or non-digital. Additionally, it should include protections for those exercising their right to freedom of expression against any unjust consequences or penalties.
One crucial aspect distinguishing the right to digital freedom of expression from its classical predecessor concerns the permissible restrictions on this right. The conditions that justify imposing such restrictions should clearly reflect a unified global vision in a world with a singular, borderless public space.
The Human Rights Committee’s interpretations of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have shed light on the principle of freedom of expression. However, these interpretations should be explicitly included in the original text to provide a comprehensive definition of the right itself.
The Right to Access Information
The Internet and other digital technologies are usually seen as tools that facilitate states’ fulfillment of their obligations towards their citizens’ right to access information. More generally, since its inception, the Internet has provided far more opportunities for individuals to access information more freely than any previous means of communication.
However, the commercial development of Internet services and applications has led to various practices that restrict freedom of access to information. Among these practices is using search engines that employ algorithms assigning different weights to search results based on various criteria. These criteria are often opaque to the user, leaving them without the opportunity to modify or override them.
Accessing information through the Internet also faces various restrictions related to copyright, which largely remain governed by traditional legal concepts that predate the advancements brought about by digital technology.
The right to access information in a digital world requires a redefinition that considers the digital nature of data, information, and content. It should also consider the nature of the means used to access and disseminate information and the interests that should be prioritized when balancing the rights of publishers with the rights of individuals seeking access to information.
The right to access information is also closely related to website and content-blocking practices, whether by states or companies providing various services, from Internet access to search engines and social media platforms.
In contrast, while the right to access information pertains to citizens’ entitlement to transparency from state institutions concerning their operations, the digital right to access information should expand this obligation to technology companies.
This should include the right to access policies, terms of service, and critical technical details used by these companies. In general, every Internet user or consumer of software and services has the right to freely, and without hindrance, access information relevant to aspects that may affect their life, safety, rights, and interests when using various technological products.
Economic and Social Rights in a Digital World
The Right to Development
The right to development is typically associated with sustainable economic growth, encompassing environmental, social, and cultural considerations, alongside community participation in decision-making. When expanding this right to encompass digital rights, the development of digital technologies must be viewed as a crucial aspect of development, subject to the same environmental, social, and cultural sustainability and community engagement standards.
This expanded definition of the right to development necessitates that private sector entities involved in developing and deploying digital technologies have clear responsibilities to respect and uphold the rights of individuals impacted by their operations.
The rapid advancement of AI technology in recent years may serve as a representative example of the environmental, social, and cultural impacts accompanying digital technology development. While states strive to keep pace with the evolution of AI through legislation and regulatory frameworks, community participation is notably lacking.
This participation should consider all individuals whose rights and interests will be affected by companies’ development policies. Priority should be given to those who are most directly impacted, such as residents of areas where large data centers are established, which significantly affect their environment through energy and water consumption, among other factors.
The Right to Work and Labor Rights
The right to work and labor rights, in general, are rights for which the development of digital technology in recent decades has led to drastic changes in their founding concepts. Classical labor rights relate to particular perceptions of the labor relationship and the way this relationship is managed in its various aspects. These include employment mechanisms, wage determination, working hours, compensation, social and health insurance, and pensions.
Digital technology and its applications have enabled new forms of labor relations and value-added production that do not fit the traditional framework that laws require to be applicable. At the same time, these new forms do not fit the traditional framework of a temporary contractual relationship to provide specific services, which is the only framework available under current laws as an alternative to traditional permanent labor relations.
Protecting labor rights in the digital world necessitates a comprehensive vision of production processes at the level of the entire human community. This means moving beyond the traditional permanent employment model as the fundamental unit of value-added production.
Instead, labor rights should be based on a fundamental principle: the right of every individual to a fair share of the returns from any value they contribute to producing through their activities. Additionally, a portion of the value-added should be allocated to fund health insurance and social security systems in which individuals have the right to participate. Political borders should not restrict these funds.
In the same way, trade union rights need to be reformulated to mainstream these rights and free them from being restricted by traditional stereotypes. In a digital world, trade union rights should be based on the right to freedom of assembly and affiliation, turning it into a general right for everyone to form and join entities that protect their rights.
Such entities should not be restricted by state political boundaries, and therefore, international law should regulate their establishment and operation and oblige both states and economic entities to facilitate their work.
The Right to Education
The right to education entails recognizing the necessity for all members of society to have a minimum level of knowledge and skills that enable them to be active participants and aware of their rights and responsibilities.
When applying this perspective to digital rights, the right to education should explicitly include the right of individuals to acquire the essential knowledge and skills needed to navigate digital technologies, particularly the Internet, through free, mandatory educational services. This minimum standard should ensure that individuals can effectively manage their digital presence and are aware of their digital rights, empowering them to advocate for and protect these rights independently or in collaboration with others.
The vision for fulfilling the right to education should also encompass all the means provided by digital technology to enhance access to educational services and improve their quality. Therefore, the right to education should mandate that the state provide free compulsory educational services through various methods, including remote learning and other digital technologies.
The Right to Health
States’ commitment to their citizens’ right to health involves providing a minimum standard of healthcare services and necessary measures to ensure public health, such as combating epidemics and endemic diseases. This obligation is contingent upon the availability of sufficient material capacities to achieve the aforementioned minimum standards.
This is one of the aspects that should be reconsidered within the framework of a digital right to health. With the potential to provide healthcare services at lower costs through digital technology and deliver health services that transcend political boundaries between countries, the right to health can be redefined more globally and inclusively.
Conclusion
This paper presented a coherent conception of digital rights within the context of the digital world that is still taking shape around us. The paper began with the hypothesis that the development of digital technology and its infiltration into all human activities has created a digital presence integrated with physical existence within a single digital world.
In this world, each individual’s rights are related to their inseparable digital existence, which requires rephrasing most classical human rights to take this digital existence into account.
The paper discussed digital rights, their emergence, evolution, key values, and principles. It then explored various approaches to defining them, focusing on the paper’s approach.
The paper also addressed the rights related to an individual’s entry into the digital world and their active digital existence, along with the protection of their rights in this world. Finally, the paper examined how human rights should be rephrased in light of a digital world, addressing several rights under the headings of civil and political rights and economic and social rights.