Should surfing the web count as a human right? The view from South Africa.
Should internet access be seen as a human right?
To answer that question, activist Onica Makwakwa likes to begin with a story.
In 2015, South Africa’s capital Pretoria began setting up free Wi-Fi hotspots across the city. Local media interviewed a teenage boy from Atteridgeville, a poor black community on the city’s fringes, who regularly walked four miles roundtrip to use the nearest hotspot.
Why is this free Wi-Fi so important to you? they asked.
“I live in a shack,” Ms. Makwakwa remembers him replying. “But when I’m on the internet I’m no longer a kid living
