Mexico. Two milestones determined that May 17 became Internet Day. On the one hand, the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on March 27, 2006 proclaimed this date as World Information Society Day. On the other hand, Resolution 68 of the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2006 called for the celebration of Telecommunication and Information Society Day on the same day.
It is a good time to reflect on the need to democratize the Internet not only because it is an innovative tool, but also because of its impacts on the exercise of human rights and the propagation of content.
According to the National Survey on Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Households (ENDUTIH) 2017, 17.4 million of Mexican households (50.9% of the total) have an Internet connection, which represented an annual growth of 11.1% compared to 2016.
Although access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Internet are a right enshrined in the constitution, almost half of Mexican households are still offline.
By disaggregating by state, it is possible to identify that the three states with the highest proportion of households are Sonora (83 out of every 100 households); Baja California Sur (78 out of 100), and Mexico City (75 out of 100). In stark contrast, there are households in Chiapas (17 out of 100); Tlaxcala (28 out of 100), and Guerrero (32 out of 100) that register the greatest lag.
States with the lowest proportion of households with Internet show geographical and administrative complications for the deployment of infrastructure, as well as a high number of people below the poverty line, making them unattractive markets for traditional operators to market the service. At the same time, they have an enormous need for economic and social development to which connectivity can contribute.
Therefore, this May 17, it is essential to remember the importance not only of a public policy of universal connectivity, but of one that attends, as a priority, those disconnected regions with the aim that the Internet becomes an equalizing tool while the platform is useful to promote social development given its positive impacts on the promotion of free expression, the right to information, education and health, to name just a few.
Text written by Laura Castillo and Samuel Bautista of The Social Intelligence Unit.
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