Internet as a human right
Milan has recently launched the Milano 2020 adaptation strategy, a policy paper resetting Milan's priorities after the Covid19 pandemic. This strategy highlights something obvious but still not so widespread, that the Internet should be a human right.
This adaptation strategy is based on digital inclusion and aims to ensure the participation of everyone who is part of the city's social fabric, involving local institutions, representatives, non-profits, citizens' associations, self-employed individuals. Another goal of this strategy is to take appropriate measures for the most vulnerable, mapping and including the underprivileged in the service system, working to ensure that the diffusion of local services at the neighbourhood level is accompanied by a redistribution of medical services. To achieve this goal it is clear that Internet access must become a primary right of every citizen. The strategy focuses also on the digitization of services, production, and distribution, to encourage innovation, automation, and the creation of industrial symbiosis areas, revitalizing the trading system. Finally, the main efforts through the Adaptation Strategy in combination with the Digital Inclusion strategy are to promote digital literacy and education which is another fundamental principle.
The whole strategy makes it indisputable that in order to reach all these targets you need to overcome the digital divide. This means that the Internet has to be a tool all citizens can have access to and that it is indeed a human right.
