The Wednesday Weigh-In: Right to surf edition

onlineLast year, Finland became the first country in the world to make internet access a basic right for its citizens.

Since then, the country had made good on its promise to keep Internet access affordable to all Finns, with more than 85 percent of Finns currently able to access to the Internet. This makes Finland rank among the world’s Top 10 most wired nations.

And this summer, a report by a United Nations special rapporteur declared that internet access is a basic human right. According to the report, disconnecting people from the Internet – which happened across the Middle East and North Africa during the protests this spring – constitutes a human rights violation and is thus against international law.

I think about this a lot because, well, I write on the internet, and I also work a lot with women from all over the world. Sometimes their rural location or lack of connectivity can present a big obstacle to our feminist movement-building.

With this in mind, today’s Wednesday Weigh-In is:

What role does staying connected play in your feminism? What could better internet access mean for your political activity and viewpoints?

Can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

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