Chairman Smith, Co-Chairman Cardin, I wish to thank you and the Members of the
Helsinki Commission for conducting this briefing and for the opportunity to address the
work of the Global Network Initiative (GNI) in protecting and advancing freedom of
expression and privacy rights in information and communication technologies (ICTs).
GNI is a multi-stakeholder group of companies, civil society organizations (including
human rights and press freedom groups), investors and academics, who have created a
collaborative approach to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy in the
ICT sector.
GNI is founded upon Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy that all its
participants commit to uphold, rooted in international human rights standards. The
Principles provide high-level guidance and are accompanied by Implementation
Guidelines that set out in greater detail how companies put our Principles into practice.
GNI provides resources for ICT companies to help them address difficult issues related
to freedom of expression and privacy that they may face anywhere in the world.
Alongside our framework of Principles we employ a confidential, collaborative, and
accountable approach to working through challenges of corporate responsibility in the
ICT sector.
Accomplishments
Accountability is at the core of GNI, which builds upon similar efforts in other sectors that
have come under scrutiny with regard to human rights issues. Member companies
commit to a process of independent assessment of how they are implementing GNI’s
Principles. In 2012, GNI completed the world’s first independent assessment of
technology companies’ policies and procedures for responding to government requests
affecting free speech and privacy. The assessments of founding companies Google,
Microsoft, and Yahoo! indicated the companies have made progress in adopting policies
and procedures for dealing with government requests that could threaten the freedom of
expression and privacy rights of users.
Each company’s assessment produced different recommendations, but the types of
recommendations made for the companies to consider include: engaging more directly
with human rights groups and experts when conducting risk assessments; improving the
sharing of information to help drive public policy engagement with governments; and
documenting the process for conducting human rights impact assessments, updating it
as new policy or legislative developments are identified. These assessments focused on
the existence of policies and procedures that companies have adopted to implement the
GNI Principles. The next and final phase of the assessment process will examine how
these policies and procedures are deployed in practice.
The breadth and expertise of GNI’s diverse membership gives our collective voice
authority when it comes to public policy affecting rights to free expression and privacy
online. In 2012, GNI spoke out on issues of concern in key countries around the world,
and engaged with international institutions to promote the adoption of laws, policies, and
practices that advance freedom of expression and privacy. In Pakistan, for example, GNI
worked with international and Pakistani civil society organizations to warn companies of
the human rights implications of responding to a Request for Proposals to build a new
system for Internet filtering and blocking. GNI member company Websense was the first
to speak out and make a commitment not to submit a response to the proposal. Other
companies including Cisco, Sandvine, Verizon, and McAfee also made public
commitments not to respond and the government reversed course on this particular
procurement.
GNI has taken some important steps to increase its global reach, gaining new members
from six countries in the past year. New members include academic organizations,
investors, and civil society members from Argentina, Denmark, India, Sweden, the
United Kingdom and the United States. Two new companies, Evoca and Websense,
joined in 2011, the first new companies to join GNI since the formation of the initiative.
The addition of observer companies Facebook and Afilias has also contributed to
increasing the breadth of the companies working with us.
Because the free expression and privacy issues facing technology companies are
constantly changing, GNI provides opportunities for its members to work through
complex issues with other participants in a safe, confidential space. GNI members
regularly meet to discuss the risks in particular countries, new legislative and regulatory
developments, as well as to discuss best practices for company human rights due
diligence.
In June 2012, GNI hosted its first Annual Learning Forum in Washington DC, bringing
together companies, civil society organizations, investors and academics both inside
GNI and not to discuss freedom of expression and privacy issues. There GNI presented
a new report, “Digital Freedoms in International Law: Practical Steps to Protect Human
Rights Online,” co-authored by Dr. Ian Brown and Professor Douwe Korff, which
examines the challenges facing governments and technology companies as they
balance rights to expression and privacy with law enforcement and national security
responsibilities.
Challenges facing the technology sector
The catalytic role that technology has played in support of democratic aspirations around
the world is undeniable, but so too are its uses by governments to aid in the surveillance
and suppression of rights. Increasing government interest in controlling ICT is illustrated
by the proposal for code of conduct on information security put forward at the UN
General Assembly by China, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, as well as proposals in
advance of the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai in
December.
Although commonly associated with China’s sophisticated censorship architecture or
Mubarak’s mass shutdown of the Internet during Egypt’s revolution, these issues are by
no means limited to autocracies. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Draft
Communications Data Bill (C8359), while pursuing legitimate law enforcement
objectives, has worrying aspects to it, and could give authoritarian regimes justification
for their own approach. It is critically important that as democracies address some of the
challenges they face they do this in a way that sees legislation and policies developed
that would serve as a worthy model for other countries to adopt.
Companies are facing new threats from governments in many markets that take
increasingly diverse and complex forms. In Thailand, the troubling conviction of
Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of the online forum Prachathai, for not moving
quickly enough to remove content posted by users illustrates the serious harm that
occurs when companies are held liable for content uploaded or sent by users. In Russia,
new laws ostensibly aimed at curbing extremism may enable the widespread blocking of
websites for the purpose of political suppression. Some countries are considering
measures to require the location of data centers in country to control access to user
data, as was proposed in Vietnam. Finally, some states continue to engage in the
shutdown of communications networks and blocking of selected websites, as was
recently the case in Tajikistan.
With increasing government interest in communications technologies, companies in the
ICT sector can find themselves caught between government requests for information,
and their responsibility to respect the human rights of their users. The resulting ethical
questions are becoming increasingly complex and require proactive strategies to
anticipate and address human rights risks. The role of GNI is to provide a platform for
developing these strategies, and to allow companies to credibly demonstrate their
commitment to human rights.
Opportunities
The challenges of navigating the nexus of human rights and technology are too
complicated for any single company to manage alone. GNI’s experience demonstrates
that even the fiercest of commercial competitors can work together when it comes to
human rights. These efforts are further multiplied by the informed expertise of other
stakeholders, including human rights organizations active on-the-ground in repressive
regimes, investors interested in encouraging companies to respect the rights of their
users while operating in diverse and challenging markets, and academic researchers
whose findings and analysis enhances understanding of human rights issues in the ICT
landscape.
GNI continues to pursue dialogue with companies across ICT sector, including with
telecommunications firms, as the time is now right to address issues in this part of the
sector.
By working together, rights-respecting companies have an opportunity to both set a
global standard for how companies can responsibly manage government requests
impacting free expression and privacy rights, but also collectively engage with those
governments to promote the rule of law and the adoption of laws, policies and practices
that protect, respect, and fulfill rights to free expression and privacy.
|
