Internet Access as Human Right: A Dystopian Critique from the Occupied Palestinian Territory

In his chapter, Cristiano explores the controversial correlation between technology and political freedoms by questioning the inclusion of internet access into the human rights agenda. Drawing from the dystopian case of Palestinian digital rights—tightly held through Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s vise-like jaws of censorship and algorithmic control—the chapter unpacks the conceptual duality common/right in order to open up the question of accessibility to broader digital rights, such as content management and data privacy. In conclusion, it looks at potential alternatives, and the negation thereof, as a way to argue that envisioning human rights in prescriptive terms might detract political freedoms rather than enabling them.