Discrimination is not actually over
The vast majority of the American population would contend that segregation and discrimination ended in the country when Martin Luther King Jr. and fellow activists marched on Washington and protested until the passage of the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. Despite this popular perception, discrimination and segregation still resides in the form of the digital realm. This practice is called digital redlining, and it is defined as “the deliberate exclusion of certain communities on the basis of geography, race, ethnicity and income from the deployment of advanced information/telecommunication technology” according to Afro.com. This practice exists today in the form of Google Fiber and other similar high-speed cables. These types of firms target areas of high-wealth to roll out their faster internet speeds, providing the rich with a greater wealth of information as opposed to the poorer areas. Digital redlining separates the access of information among communities and neighborhoods by providing different types of information services at different speeds and quantities. This divides the information provided to certain communities based off of economic, social, and political boundaries.
The Digital Divide, called Digital Apartheid in some cases, goes beyond national borders. Like within communities, where wealthier communities have richer access to information, wealthier countries have a correlative effect as well. Racial boundaries are segregated as well as in many cases the lines that are drawn give rise to racial discrimination on top of discrimination on other bases.
The UN cites that it hinders freedom of expression mostly in preventing certain countries and regions equal internet access. This would in fact prevent opinions from being expressed by those of the less rich nations, whereas the proportion of expression from those wealthier areas would be much higher. I do not believe that the Internet is necessarily a basic human right, although I do believe that equal access to it should be highly encouraged by organizations like the UN. However, I do believe though that preventing expression on the Internet is a hindrance to human rights as this blockage would prevent freedom of speech on this medium.
