Internet Access Shouldn't be a Right

For some time now, the EU has been calling for Internet access to be made a universal right for all mankind. Anyone who opposes making it a right gets tarred with the brush of supporting government censorship by withholding Internet access: think China in Xinjiang, Iran when protests break out, or India abrogating Article 370.

Proponents of the idea, however, are mixing up two different issues: (1) That everyone needs Internet access today is obvious. (2) But that doesn’t mean it should be a right.

Why not? What’s the problem here? Look no further than Alex Tabarrok’s piece on what happens when people treat electricity a right… in India. He quotes this study to explain what happens gradually:

“Because electricity is seen as a right, subsidies, theft, and nonpayment are widely tolerated.”

Inevitably then, the electricity companies bleed money. If selling/ transmitting more units of power means greater losses, it is but rational that:

“Distribution companies try to sell less of their product.”

Thus, electricity begins to fall outside the market forces of demand and supply:

“(The mindset that) electricity is a right (leads to) a low-quality, low-payment equilibrium.”

Ironically then, everyone suffers, rich and poor, bill payer and non-bill payer. The equilibrium is further strengthened by the benefits of bribing officials rather than paying the bill. “Corruption with theft” ensures the equilibrium never changes.

The study then goes a step further and looks at the role of poverty in all this. And they found poverty isn’t the main reason for this situation!

“The vast majority of customers in Bihar expect no penalty from paying a bill late, illegally hooking into the grid, wiring around a meter, or even bribing electricity officials to avoid payment. These attitudes are in stark contrast to how the same consumers view payment for private goods like cellphones. It is debatable whether cellphones are more important than electricity, but in Bihar we find that the poor spend three times more on cellphones than they do on electricity.”

All of which is why Tabarrok comes to this conclusion:

“To ensure that everyone has access to high quality electricity the government must credibly commit that electricity is not a right.”

The same argument applies for Internet access. And the argument applies across (poorer) countries, and so the EU idea of making Internet access a right, while well intentioned, will turn out to be detrimental to poorer countries. Thank God the idea hasn’t got passed at the UN.