According to a recent YouGov opinion poll, 69% of the public believe that there is a right to internet access.
The same poll, asked questions about “net neutrality”. Although only 18% of respondents were familiar with the term, however, in response to the question:
Would you support or oppose allowing internet service providers to make deals in which some companies (such as movie streaming services) pay to have their online content load faster than other content?
a total of 49% either opposed or strongly opposed.
The full poll is available here [pdf]
We have previously posted on the legal issues concerning a “Human Right to Internet Access“.
However, the views of the public on privacy and security on the internet remain of concern to privacy campaigners. Another poll showed that 60% of respondents believed that Facebook should monitor private messages for keywords relating to terrorism. Only 23% of respondents say they should not.
This poll was taken shortly after the Intelligence and Security Committee’s report [pdf] on the death of Lee Rigby in which it was said that one of the killers, Michael Adebowale said he wanted to kill a soldier and discussed his plans in “the most graphic and emotive manner” on Facebook.
YouGov draws attention to significant generational difference in opinions over privacy. While 18-24 year olds tend to see social media companies’ primary duty as protecting their data against government misuse, other age groups see its primary duty as combatting terrorism. The majority of 18-24 year olds (58%) also say they are more worried about intelligence services being given too much data rather than too little.
Leave a Reply