“Human rights are applicable offline and online, basta!” and “Lies spread faster than facts” might be the two quotes that best summarise the discussions at the 22nd EU-NGO Human Rights Forum on the impact of new technologies on human rights, on 9-10 December.
With 4.6 billion internet users in the world, 3.8 billion people active on social media, and a COVID-19 pandemic limiting offline contacts, this year’s theme was timelier than ever! The Forum pointed out the high level of digital illiteracy on how to use internet and social media safely among civil society, and its lack of knowledge about digital rights.
Internet offers opportunities to create new forms of activism and use digital information as proof of human rights violations. In Hong Kong, activists developed an interactive app with a map where the police are represented by dots during protests. In various countries, civil society provides Facebook with locally meaningful keywords on hate speech, so that Facebook can “train” its algorithms. On the other hand, human rights defenders (HRDs) face visible or insidious threats such as online hate speech, smear campaigns, internet shutdowns to suppress protests, while ordinary people’s privacy is at risk with the increasing recourse to face recognition and biometric data collection under the disguise of national security. Repressive regimes broadly define ‘hate speech’ or ‘terrorism’ to silence dissenting voices. The basic principles of necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination should be applied as a test for legality.
This usual dichotomy between benefits and threats for HRDs, which could be labelled as a “digital double-edged sword”, is not sufficient to embrace all that is at stake. At least three aspects must be dealt with: freedom of expression online (how to balance it with the need to combat hate speech, where is the line and who draws it); privacy and surveillance (data collection, storage, and use by unregulated companies and governments); discrimination due to the massive digital gap based on age, gender and income. The ICT is not neutral, it is meant for the privileged!
The Forum participants argued that big tech companies should not be allowed to self-regulate as regards data protection, fight against hate speech, and censorship (e.g. removal of content perceived as too ‘political’ by Facebook). Civil society has a key role to play to promote dignity for all, build coalitions and promote an inclusive internet, with the support of open-source tech companies whose motive is not to accumulate profits.
On 15 December, the European Commission published its proposal for a Digital Services Act as a regulatory framework at EU level to address the internet business model. The Forum participants pleaded for a “three-T’s” policy, namely trust, transparency and truth. For a free, open and secure internet as a fundamental right.