You might take it for granted that you can load up Twitter or browse¹ through Reddit whenever you like, but around half of the 7.7 billion people living on the planet right now aren't yet able to get online.

你可能觉得随时能登录推特或浏览Reddit（社交新闻站点）是理所当然的，但现在全球77亿总人口中约有一半还不能上网。

And that's a big problem, according to one researcher. Merten Reglitz, a philosopher and global ethics² lecturer from the University of Birmingham in the UK says internet access should be established as a basic human right that everyone is entitled to.

一个研究人员认为这是个大问题。Merten Reglitz是英国伯明翰大学的哲学家和全球伦理讲师，他说上网应成为每个人都能享受的基本人权。

"Internet access is a unique and non-substitutable way for realising fundamental human rights such as free speech and assembly," he writes in a new paper.

他在一篇新论文中写道：“上网是实现言论自由和集会等基本人权的独特而且不可替代的方式。”

The argument is that going online is now so essential for participating in modern life, doing without it puts people at a serious disadvantage in terms of staying informed, getting their voices heard, realising their fundamental human rights, and much more.

他认为上网是现代生活的基本组成部分，不能上网会使人们在获取最新信息、发表看法、实现基本人权等方面处于严重不利的地位。

What's more, if people aren't able to afford a connection to the internet, then it should be provided to them free of charge, according to Reglitz.

此外，Reglitz说针对没钱上网的人，应该让他们免费上网。

"Internet access is no luxury, but instead a moral human right and everyone should have unmonitored and uncensored access to this global medium - provided free of charge for those unable to afford it," says Reglitz.

Reglitz说：“上网不是奢侈品，相反它是一个道德人权，每个人访问这个全球媒介都应该不受监控、不受审查，应该为那些上不起网的人免费提供上网服务。”

"Without such access, many people lack a meaningful way to influence and hold accountable supranational rule-makers and institutions. These individuals simply don't have a say in the making of the rules they must obey and which shape their life chances."“如果不能上网，很多人就缺少了一个有效途径来影响和追究多国规则制定者和机构的责任，针对他们必须遵守和影响他们生活的规则的制定他们就没有话语权。”