All
around the world, a debate rages over the protection of users’ actions and
information online. In the developed world, this is seen primarily through the
lens of personal privacy protections: how and when users’ data on popular
services like Google and Facebook may be used commercially. Elsewhere in the
world, the issues are often more stark, as what users say and do online can
literally be a matter of life and death for them.
Entrepreneurs
and service providers in the developed world, increasingly producing services,
which are automatically global, need to understand the profound choices that
users face worldwide.
At the CCIA
office in Geneva we help translate the perspective of the technology sector’s
understanding of various human rights issues for governmental decision-makers
to help them understand how tech thinks about these issues. Geneva’s important
as it is the home of the UN’s Human Rights Council, and as a result key decision-makers
come together here several times a year.
The United
States underlined its commitment to the promotion of Internet Freedom with a
number of events held here last week as part of the
Internet
Freedom Fellows program, which brings a distinguished group of young human
rights activists to Geneva, Washington and Silicon Valley to meet with US and
international government leaders, members of civil society and the private
sector. This year the group consisted of activists from Syria, Burkina Faso,
Cambodia, Venezuela and Azerbaijan. Speakers also included representatives from
the International Red Cross, the ITU, the Institute for Human Rights and
Business, and advocacy organisations like the Internet Society (ISOC), Access
Now and the Global Network Initiative.
Rebecca
MacKinnon, an influential Internet activist and CNN’s ex-Beijing bureau chief,
kicked things off with an overview of the current human rights situation
online. The most alarming trend: More and more Governments are using the
Internet for blanket surveillance and systematic, targeted attacks on the
communication channels of human rights activists. A blatant example are the 43
Azerbaijani who got interrogated by the secret police after they used their
mobile phones to vote in favour of the Armenian entry during the 2011
Eurovision song contest. (Armenia and Azerbaijan still maintain a tense,
conflict-laden relationship).
Several
speakers highlighted that telecommunications and Internet companies often face
difficult policy choices – both in authoritarian and democratic countries.
While companies need to defend their users from intrusive government requests
that could put them at risk, they are still bound by local laws. Too often, law
enforcement agencies make abusive requests and disregard due process. At the
same time, companies are not always fully aware of their responsibilities and
can be too willing to comply with government requests. For companies, the key
is to be fully transparent about their policies and procedures so that users
can assess the risk of using a particular service.
Robert
Wheelan, a security expert working at the International Red Cross, pointed out
that in high-risk environments, free speech principles often run counter to
security needs. People in conflict situations need to maintain full control
over their online data - otherwise they face grave risks up to and
including mortal danger. This is why many of them cannot use many popular
Internet services.
Should
there be a universal set of rules to govern how information is used on the
Internet? Not according to these experts. The existing body of human rights law
fully applies on the Internet, a fact that CCIA has welcomed. Also, in many areas
of policy we will not be able to establish universally applicable rules due to
regional and cultural sensitivities. For example, defamation and privacy laws
are applied differently in the US and Europe.
The events
in Geneva highlighted the vast potential of the Internet to enable and promote
the exercise of human rights and provided valuable insights that
forward-thinking technology sector leaders will want to factor into the design
of their services as the Internet continues to spread them to an ever larger
and more diverse user population.
Whether the
use of data is discussed in the context of commercial applications or whether
it’s about protecting the vulnerable: these are all aspects of the
implementation of human rights in the online world.
The
Internet Freedom Fellows will continue their journey to the East and then the
West Coast of the US, where they meet with key Government, civil society and
industry representatives, including from some of CCIA’s member companies like
Facebook, Google and Yahoo.
