Mike Gurstein - Is Facebook a Human Right? Egypt and Tunisia Transform Social Media February 4, 2011
Thought provoking piece by Mike Gurstein on our right to assemble in public spaces and how this relates to our right to "assemble" online. I am very interested in "socio-tech" and how we behave on the Internet - our emerging online culture. I think of the Internet very much as a "location" where I e-meet people and we "move over" from one space to another - to form a breakout group, or meet-up with additional people etc. I hadn't thought previously of the legal implications of that.
The quote below is at the end of the piece. To read it all see;
Is Facebook a Human Right? Egypt and Tunisia Transform Social Media
If we transfer the conventional behaviours and types of “association” as understood under Article 20 from physical to virtual space could we then see Facebook and Twitter not as companies, brands or applications but rather as (commercial) venues in which necessary and legally protected social behaviours – assemblies and associations --take place in a manner legally and otherwise indistinguishable from any other similar behaviours and associations.
And might the further implication of this be that for example, there would be a need to design and regulate those venues in a way similar to the manner in which we regulate physical venues including for example ensuring accessibility for the physically disabled, regulation to ensure non-discriminatory access, even the virtual equivalent to “fire regulations” which in virtual space would likely be regulation concerning privacy and personal security.
If we see human rights as seamlessly encompassing activities and associations in both physical and virtual environments perhaps then we must begin to look at the virtual world which to this time has been seen by many as a normless wild west rather as one where the kinds of protections and regulatory frameworks (including existing human rights legislation) would apply equally to online as off-line behaviours and owners of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube should be seen not as owners of the space and behaviours being manifest through their systems but rather as proprietors of virtual venues where these behaviours are taking place.