Gavin Newsom: WiFi access is a "civil rights issue"

Bearing in mind that Gavin Newsom was the "moderate" choice for mayor of San Francisco, let's peer through the viewing window at "S.F. mayor sees wireless service as basic right":

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, on Monday said he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens...

"This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It is to me a fundamental right to have access universally to information," he said...

But the mayor also singled out the power of Wi-Fi as an alternative network to provide emergency information to all citizens in the event a natural disaster such as an earthquake were to strike the city and knock out other communications.

Thus, wireless access can be seen a basic right that should be available not just to business professionals but also lower-income citizens. "This is a civil rights issue as much as anything else," Newsom said...

California · Tue, 10/04/2005 - 03:25 · · Importance: 1

Comments

If the poor have a civil right to free wifi, so that they don't have to steal access from their neighbors, or the people who live too close to the local main street; why would they have a special right to steal from the net taxpayer? There seems to be a contradiction in terms here. Apparently the official doesn't realize that anyone would ever bring up the rights of the net taxpayer.

Posted by: John S Bolton at Oct 5, 2005 1:25 AM

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