Coalition Responds to Government Censorship and Threats to Privacy
Deirdre Mulligan, assistant professor at the I School, last week announced her participation in the new Global Network Initiative, which seeks to promote and protect freedom of expression and privacy in the online environment.
The group brings together Internet companies, civil liberties and human rights organizations, and academic institutions. Members include Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, UC Berkeley, and Harvard University.
Deirdre MulliganThis effort once again reflects the unique willingness of the high-tech sector — corporations, nonprofits, academics — to work collaboratively to advance the rights and freedoms of online users around the world.
This initiative sets the groundwork for a shared bottom-up strategy and mechanisms for advancing and protecting human rights in digital media.
The Global Network Initiative is a significant development in the area of voluntary business codes of conduct, as it represents a collective effort by civil society organizations and corporations to protect and advance individual rights in the face of government efforts to interfere with them.
Background
New information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet and mobile platforms, provide unprecedented opportunities for individuals to create and share information of all sorts. The production, distribution and acquisition of information in turn, generates information about creators and users of this information. Corporations have increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs as governments, seeking to censor information and surveil individuals and organizations, demand that they limit access to websites, blogs, videos and other information, and turn over information about individuals and their communications.
The duty of governments to respect, protect, promote and fulfill human rights is the foundation of the human rights framework. That duty includes ensuring that national laws, regulations and policies are consistent with international human rights laws and standards on freedom of expression and privacy. Unfortunately governments around the world have laws on the books and/or practices that are inconsistent with their human rights obligations.
Initiative Principles
The GNI believes that technology companies have the responsibility to respect and protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users. Because of their impact on the exchange of ideas and access to information, these companies, NGOs, and other stakeholders have come together to support these rights. This collaborative effort strengthens work with governments to advance freedom of expression and privacy globally.
The GNI principles and their accompanying implementation guidelines establish a framework to provide direction and guidance to the technology industry and its stakeholders in protecting and advancing the enjoyment of freedom of expression and privacy globally.
The participants have also developed a multi-stakeholder governance structure to ensure accountability for the implementation of these principles and their continued relevance, effectiveness and impact. This structure incorporates transparency with the public, independent assessment and multi-stakeholder collaboration. The participants will seek to extend the number of organizations from around the world supporting these principles so that they can take root as a global standard.