{"id":11761,"date":"2025-12-19T16:28:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esc-info.eu\/?p=11761"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:53:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:53:37","slug":"international-manifesto-for-a-universal-and-constitutional-right-to-be-offline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esc-info.eu\/cs\/international-manifesto-for-a-universal-and-constitutional-right-to-be-offline\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERNATIONAL MANIFESTO FOR A UNIVERSAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO BE OFFLINE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Collectif nantais de veille citoyenne (CNVC) – Nantes Citizens\u2019 Watch Collective – October 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/internationaldisconnectionmanifesto.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are neither technophobes nor techno-worshippers. We just want the freedom to use or not to use the Internet to manage our daily lives. We want to be able to talk to competent public officials or technical staff instead of relying on an \u201capp,\u201d<\/em> a \u201cchat,\u201d<\/em> a \u201cchatbot,\u201d<\/em> or the robot of a call center that often doesn\u2019t understand our question. Many people are losing access to their rights out of discouragement in the face of falsely \u201csimplified\u201d<\/em> online administrative procedures.
Digital connectivity should be an option, not an obligation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital technology is tightening its grip year after year and at the same time, human relations are undermined. The obsolescence of our humanity is being programmed.<\/strong> The widespread use of GPS has reduced our sense of direction, online encyclopedias are diminishing our ability to memorize, screen-based teaching lowers academic performance (according to the OECD’s PISA report), and generative artificial or synthetic intelligence risks rendering us useless by deciding everything for us. The rise of the Internet of Things and Bodies (IoT & IoB), along with transhumanist projects for an „enhanced“<\/em> humanity, are far from reassuring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little by little, we’re becoming \u201cdata fodder\u201d<\/em>, tracked like goods or animals. <\/strong>Every pretext \u2013 security,
pandemics, terrorism, child abuse \u2013 is used to justify our ever increasing digital surveillance and control.
The growing centralization of our most personal data in digital databases is a cause for concern. The
biometric passport and the Digital Identity Wallet pave the way for new forms of totalitarianism. Is the digital web not becoming our prison? Moreover, any interconnected, centralized, and mandatory system is not only a threat to freedom, it is also vulnerable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectivity is demanded in almost every aspect of daily life:<\/strong> working remotely, receiving a parcel, sending a letter, opening a door to a building, carrying out a banking transaction, booking a medical
appointment or accessing public services. More recently, the suppression of train tickets, the end of printed receipts, the advent of digital currency, are all part of a process that sends a flood of information to misleadingly labeled dematerialized „cloud“<\/em> storage systems that are just energy-hungry and
waterguzzling data centers that encroach upon farmland across multiple continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-paper propaganda<\/strong> has shaped our minds to such an extent that we believe in good faith that we are acting in the interest of the planet by receiving endless online ads and being automatically redirected to
digital platforms, all the while forgetting the enormous ecological footprint of producing and powering
electronic devices. Paper can be recycled six times over, while a so-called „smart“<\/em> phone can hardly be recycled at all! We want to be able to keep physical currency, checks, train and cinema tickets, textbooks and passports\u2026 on paper. We wish to preserve the age-old use of books and printed documents, which
have been the foundation of our civilizations, and to maintain human contact.<\/strong> We are committed to
maintaining a genuine social life without a smartphone.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the name of convenience and \u201cProgress,\u201d<\/em> the market, driven solely by short-term profit and blind to the proven vulnerabilities of children, is pushing technological innovation<\/strong> (such as 5G, and soon 6G) and encouraging customers to seek a constant, manipulative and addictive connection<\/strong>. Some even claim, cynically or naively, to serve the „ecological transition“<\/em> in this way! But this hyperconnected society of digital dependency and control is, in fact, ecologically irresponsible and unsustainable: why overload the power grid at the risk of blackouts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should we develop tools that deplete the planet’s limited resources, pollute and destroy biodiversity without reducing our carbon footprint? It takes 183 kilograms of raw materials to produce a smartphone weighing 170 grams, and 32 kilograms for the integrated circuit of a 2 gram microchip. Can we accept disfiguring our planet to power billions of digital devices? The (global) war over metals, rare earths and water has already begun<\/strong>; more and more water will be needed to manufacture our endless digital gadgets and cool the proliferation of data centers and nuclear power plants. For our ever-faster communications, \u201cconstellations\u201d<\/em> of civilian and military satellites, clutter and damage the skies<\/strong> with
debris despite scientists, astronomers, and meteorologists sounding the alarm.
And we want the PEACE \u2013 and more wisdom in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The well-documented link between the destruction of the planet and the loss of human bonds is experienced as a catastrophe<\/strong>, even by younger generations, who are the most digitally connected. This disaster compels us to change course: it is certainly not by forcing everyone to survive and consume via a smartphone \u2013 or even a wired connection \u2013 that we will save humanity and the living world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the verge of being imposed, universal connectivity can lead to discrimination and distress<\/strong> for those affected by digital illiteracy, uncomfortable with the Internet or without access to it, and for those suffering from symptoms of electrohypersensitivity (EHS) or electromagnetic radiation syndrome (EMRs), whose numbers are steadily increasing due to wireless communication systems and smart meters. Reducing electromagnetic pollution would benefit everyone, fauna and flora included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is the case with pesticides, neonicotinoids, PFAS, endocrine disruptors, and other nuisances caused by our industrial civilization, the health issues<\/strong> associated with pulsed microwave radiation accumulating in our environment are deliberately underestimated<\/strong> under pressure from lobbies that sow doubt despite numerous solid scientific studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, cyberattacks on hospitals and the looting of health data will increase in a never-ending game of cops and robbers. We must finally accept that we will never<\/em> be fully protected<\/strong>, despite the soothing and self-serving rhetoric about digital safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discrimination affects<\/strong> people who:<\/p>\n\n\n\n