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6 - States as Standard Threats

from Part II - Obligations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2024

Merten Reglitz
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

States are primary duty-bearers and major threats to free internet access. The chapter sets out the second meaning of ‘free’ internet access as ‘free from arbitrary interference’. Most internet users live in states where internet access and use is unfree. Autocratic states use the internet to monitor, manipulate, and control their citizens by what has become known as ‘digital authoritarianism’. The chapter uses the examples of Russia and China to show that, when they disrespect free internet access, states turn the internet into a repression technology. Examples include Russia’s technological and legal control of cyberspace and China’s Golden Shield Project, its Great Firewall, and its emerging social credit system. Democratic states also misuse the internet to spy unjustly on their citizens, as was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. The chapter explains why indiscriminate mass surveillance practices of democratic states are unjustifiable and harm people’s human right to privacy. It also sets out a list of moral obligations states have as part of the human right to free internet access: that they must respect, protect, and not undermine internet freedom.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • States as Standard Threats
  • Merten Reglitz, University of Birmingham
  • Book: Free Internet Access as a Human Right
  • Online publication: 15 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009520508.009
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  • States as Standard Threats
  • Merten Reglitz, University of Birmingham
  • Book: Free Internet Access as a Human Right
  • Online publication: 15 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009520508.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • States as Standard Threats
  • Merten Reglitz, University of Birmingham
  • Book: Free Internet Access as a Human Right
  • Online publication: 15 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009520508.009
Available formats
×