Finland made history in 2010 by becoming the first country in the entire world to declare broadband internet access a fundamental, legally binding human right.

A closer look

Finland made history in 2010 by becoming the first country in the entire world to declare broadband internet access a fundamental, legally binding human right. While other nations were still treating a stable connection as a luxury commodity to be heavily monopolized and overcharged by telecom giants, the Finnish government mandated that every citizen was legally entitled to a one-megabit-per-second connection. It is a stunning display of progressive legislation that acknowledges how impossible it is to participate in modern society without being tethered to the web. Meanwhile, in various other highly developed, so-called "freedom-loving" nations, people are still paying exorbitant monthly fees to experience download speeds slower than dial-up every time it rains. The idea that you have a basic human right to instantly access the collective knowledge of our species, or just stream cat videos without buffering, is a utopian concept that the rest of the world desperately needs to copy