The United Nations recently passed a non-binding resolution that condemns countries that intentionally disrupts their citizens’ internet access, arguing that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice.”

A number of authoritarian countries have blocked their citizens from accessing certain parts of the internet, especially social media, which can be used to protest government actions. Last year, for example, Turkey blocked access to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube because they hosted “terrorist propaganda.” In its most recent content removal transparency report, Twitter revealed that Turkey issued 1,761 requests to remove content in the second half of 2015, and Twitter filed legal objections for 66 percent of these. According to Twitter, only 6 percent of its objection were successful.

While the UN’s resolution passed, it was opposed by a number of countries who are known for restricting what their citizens can do on the internet, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China. Specifically, these countries opposed a passage on online censorship, which says that the UN “condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law and calls on all States to refrain from and cease such measures.”

Of course, while it is good to see the UN officially state that restricting internet access is a bad thing, a non-binding resolution is more or less a sternly worded letter, and there is little the UN can actually do to enforce its stance on its member states.

Photo by sanjitbakshi