As part of their SuperPower season of reports exploring the extraordinary power of the internet, the BBC just published the results of a global poll on the right to internet access. According to this survey of more than 27,000 adults across 27 countries, four in five adults surveyed (79% ) regard internet access as their fundamental right and 87% of those who used the internet felt that access should be “the fundamental right of all people”.

The most valued aspects of the internet according to respondents is the ability to access information (47%) and the ability to interact and communicate with people (32%).

With broadening access to information in mind, and as encouraging as these findings may be, the survey is a testimony to the reality in rich countries and some urban centers in the developing world. One can still ask: what are the rights we take for granted — such as the right to health, infrastructure and education — when we view internet access as a fundamental right, and how can we act to improve them and bring internet access and its benefits to all.

This fundamental right, from my perspective as part of the GHDonline effort to foster open communication between global health implementers, can also be viewed as the right to engage with the rest of the world and not be left on the sidelines.