Four Discourses of Digital Rights: Promises and Problems of Rights-Based Politics

The notion of digital rights has recently generated a number of political declarations and civil society initiatives across the world. By critically examining these declarations and academic debates on digital rights, this article asks: Why is it that information policy issues are increasingly framed in terms of individual rights? And on what understandings of rights do various political, corporate, and civil society declarations of digital rights rest? The article identifies four discourses of digital rights, linked to different ideological assumptions and political contexts. Finally, possible limitations and pathologies of the rights discourse are discussed.