Human Right and Internet Access A philosophical investigation Dissertation Tom Wang Human Rights and Internet Access A philosophical investigation Mensenrechten en de toegang tot internet Een filosofische beschouwing (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 5 april 2016 des middags te 12.45 uur door Xiaowei Wang geboren op 25 oktober 1985 in China Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Düwell Dit proefschrift werd mede mogelijk gemaakt met financiële steun van de China Scholarship Council. Contents Contents Introduction ............................................................................... 1 I Background ...........................................................................................1 II The thesis outlined ..............................................................................4 Chapter I Internet and Democracy—A General Review . 14 I Introduction ........................................................................................14 II Definging Internet and democoracy ..................................................14 (i) What is the Internet? .................................................................................... 14 (ii) What is democracy ..................................................................................... 19 III Internet Use and the practice of democracy .....................................21 (i) Facilitating voting by providing information access .................................... 21 (ii) Facilitating voting by facilitating information processing .......................... 24 (iii) Simplifying politics .................................................................................... 27 (iv) Mobilizing people to vote .......................................................................... 30 (v) Facilitating contestation .............................................................................. 31 (vi) Growing the civil society ........................................................................... 34 (vii) Building transparent and responsive government ................................... 37 IV Brief conclusion ...............................................................................40 Chapter II Internet and Chinese Public Sphere ............... 43 I Introduction .......................................................................... 43 II Methodological reflection .................................................................44 (i) Chinese scholars ........................................................................................... 44 (ii) Jürgen Habermas ......................................................................................... 45 III Public sphere in China .....................................................................49 (i) Economic reform .......................................................................................... 50 (ii) The chinese public sphere ........................................................................... 53 IV Guo Meimei and China’s public sphere ..........................................62 (i) The storyline ................................................................................................ 62 (ii) Internet and flow of information ................................................................. 63 Contents (iii) Inclusion and critical interaction ................................................................ 66 (iv) Political impact .......................................................................................... 70 V Challenges .........................................................................................72 (i) Digital divide ................................................................................................ 73 (ii) Censorship ................................................................................................... 74 (iii) Risk of privatization ................................................................................... 76 VI Conclusion .......................................................................................77 Chapter III A Human Right to Internet Access (A Moral Approach) ................................................................................ 79 I Introduction ........................................................................................79 II What are human rights? ....................................................................79 (i) Step one: the conceptual analysis of human rights ...................................... 80 (ii) Conceptualizing human rights .................................................................... 84 III The human right to democratic governance ....................................95 (i) Griffin’s attempt ........................................................................................... 95 (ii) Gewirth’s attempt ........................................................................................ 97 IV A Human right to Internet access ..................................................105 (i) A derived right ........................................................................................... 107 (ii) The nature of the human right to Internet access ...................................... 109 V Conclusion ......................................................................................118 Chapter IV A Human Right to Internet Access (A Pratical Approach) .............................................................................. 120 I Introduction ......................................................................................120 II The background ...............................................................................121 III Beitz’s approach to human rights ..................................................124 (i) Rawls’ conceptualization of human rights ................................................. 125 (ii) The fresh start ............................................................................................ 127 IV Beitz on human rights criteria .......................................................129 Contents V A Human right to internet access ....................................................132 (i) Are very urgent interests at stake? ............................................................. 133 (ii) Threats by the government ........................................................................ 136 (iii) Possible means of regulation ................................................................... 138 V Criticism ..........................................................................................140 (i) Problems of a statist conceptualization of human rights ............................ 140 (ii) Human rights inflation .............................................................................. 142 VI Conclusion .....................................................................................143 Chapter V Internet and Confucian Ethics ...................... 145 I Introduction ......................................................................................145 II Bockover and Wong: confucianism VS Internet use ......................147 (i) Mary Bockover ........................................................................................... 148 (ii) Pak-hang Wong ......................................................................................... 150 III The concept of ‘tian xia’ and confucianism ..................................151 (i) The geographical and cosmological concept of ‘tian xia’ ......................... 151 (ii) Moral and epistemological interpretation of tian xia ................................ 153 (iii) Concept of ‘tian xia’ and principle of ‘he er bu tong’ (harmonious differentiation) ................................................................................................... 155 IV Bockover and Wong revisited .......................................................158 (i) Confucianism and the right to individual freedom .................................... 158 (ii) Confucianism, anonymity, and collapsed contexts ................................... 160 (iii) Problem of the blurring of public and private spheres ............................. 163 V The Internet and the concept of ‘tian xia’ .......................................166 VI Conclusion .....................................................................................168 Chapter VI Internet and Confucian Society ................... 170 I Introduction ......................................................................................170 II Is there a concept of ‘right’ in confucianism? .................................170 III Can confucianism embraces human rights concept? .....................173 IV Confucianism and the human right to basic goods ........................176 Contents V The Concept of min xin as an aggregation of individual rights ......178 VI min xin and the human right to Internet access .............................185 VII Conclusion ....................................................................................190 Conclusion ............................................................................. 192 Bibliography .......................................................................... 200 Introduction Introduction