to paraphrase "Internet access is not a right, so we shouldn't protect it". The reality is that so much human communication, including participation in democrat

to paraphrase "Internet access is not a right, so we shouldn't protect it". The reality is that so much human communication, including participation in democratic processes and a huge part of the economy happens online, and so it is reasonable to consider it a human right. The fact that it is relatively new doesn't change that. On the one hand internet access and participation in digital communities is almost a modern form of free assembly. It's important for just the same reasons that free assembly is --- and threatening to power structures for the same reasons too. The problem is that there are no "public spaces" in which to do this assembly --- all of the spaces on the internet are privately controlled. But this "modern free assembly" that's emerged is tremendously important, and we need to find some way to guarantee it.