A Comparative Inquiry into Internet Neutrality in South Africa

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dc.contributor.advisor Papadopoulos, Sylvia
dc.contributor.postgraduate Eloff, Daniël Jakobus
dc.date.accessioned 2021-02-16T14:19:33Z
dc.date.available 2021-02-16T14:19:33Z
dc.date.created 2021
dc.date.issued 2020
dc.description Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2020. en_ZA
dc.description.abstract This dissertation will examine the question of whether internet neutrality is protected within the current South African legal framework and secondly whether or not internet neutrality should be protected when considering the policy advantages and disadvantages that it presents. Due to the fact that the arguments in support as well as against internet neutrality fundamentally originate from broadly two different and distinct philosophical approaches, this paper starts off with a historical analysis of the development of the internet. This is followed by a discussion of the nature of rights vis-à-vis the question of whether access to the internet can be considered as a fundamental human and/or legal right. After discussing both the history of the internet and the nature of rights in the context of the subject matter of this paper, the paper turns to the policy of internet neutrality itself. The paper compares the differing approaches followed by firstly the USA and secondly the EU with regards to internet neutrality, specifically in relation to consumer rights, competition law and corporate transparency. At the end of the paper, current South African consumer rights protection and competition law are analysed in order to determine whether or not the existing regulations afford adequate protect against potential abuses of data discrimination by ISPs. The debate regarding internet neutrality potentially affects each and every jurisdiction throughout the world where internet users accesses the internet. Not only is internet neutrality therefore a policy consideration all over the world but the policy consideration is one that should be answered through multidisciplinary research and inputs. It is therefore important to note that this research paper is written from a legal perspective and is merely a contribution to a policy question (namely that of internet neutrality) that has to be considered through the lenses of various academic fields. en_ZA
dc.description.availability Unrestricted en_ZA
dc.description.degree LLM en_ZA
dc.description.department Mercantile Law en_ZA
dc.identifier.citation * en_ZA
dc.identifier.other S2021 en_ZA
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78704
dc.language.iso en en_ZA
dc.publisher University of Pretoria
dc.rights © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
dc.subject UCTD en_ZA
dc.subject Internet neutrality in South Africa en_ZA
dc.subject Access to internet en_ZA
dc.subject Internet governance en_ZA
dc.subject Internet as a human right en_ZA
dc.title A Comparative Inquiry into Internet Neutrality in South Africa en_ZA
dc.type Dissertation en_ZA


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