Promoting Accountability in the Tech Sector and Beyond, by Judith Lichtenberg
In a Project Syndicate Op-Ed, Companies Must Defend Digital Rights in the COVID-19 Era, which was published today, GNI Independent Board Chair, Mark Stephens CBE outlines some valuable lessons from the most recent Global Network Initiative (GNI) assessments on how to navigate evolving government pressure on technology companies.
These lessons also reflect GNI’s efforts over the past decade, working to develop a common approach to resist government censorship and surveillance in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. GNI’s latest published report on the independent assessment of 11 company members (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Millicom, Nokia, Orange, Telefónica, Telenor Group, Telia Company, Verizon Media, and Vodafone Group) offers insights into the strategies and tactics used by Internet, telecommunications, and vendor companies to uphold the GNI Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy when facing these challenges. These lessons, as well as the process that generated them, are applicable to a wider set of companies across many industries who are on the receiving end of government requests and demands.
In order to complete the assessments across the 11 companies, independent assessors conducted 125 interviews and reviewed 86 case studies, providing a basis for the multistakeholder GNI Board of Directors to determine that each company is making a good-faith effort to implement the GNI Principles with improvement over time. The GNI Board is formed by GNI members from the ICT sector, civil society, academia, and the investor community.
Some may raise an eyebrow at the idea of civil society organizations and academics giving credit to technology companies on human rights. Our focus on government censorship and surveillance demands is one part of a wider set of checks and balances that hold companies accountable, including laws and regulations on consumer privacy and data protection. When such a diversity of perspectives from unlikely allies comes together, it creates great strength.
GNI company members have opened up their sensitive internal policies and processes for responding to government requests and demands to external oversight. The GNI Board devoted days to discussing in detail confidential reports on each company’s adherence to the GNI Principles, which are grounded in international human rights law, including their strengths and progress as well as areas for improvement. The resulting insights demonstrate the unique value that can be derived from processes that establish best practices and support shared learning.
The public assessment report shows the applicability of the GNI Principles to a variety of companies, from social media to mobile operators and equipment vendors. Collectively, these companies exercise their responsibilities to observe the rule of law and respect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of billions of users and customers while dealing with increasingly sophisticated government measures to assert control over online content and digital communications. The report is also an invitation to other technology companies to take up our principles and consider joining GNI, and a healthy provocation to consider integrating human rights perspectives into other parts of the business world as it demonstrates to other sectors how to work collaboratively with other stakeholders.
It is no secret that as companies outside the ICT sector are digitizing their products and services, they are also increasingly receiving government requests for user data; a trend that the current pandemic is accelerating. So, why not learn from what the GNI model has to offer? Companies in industries ranging from automotive to finance could benefit from implementing the GNI Principles and developing similar multistakeholder efforts to operate in a manner consistent with freedom of expression and privacy rights.
The unique multistakeholder character of GNI increases the ability to defend Internet users’ rights.
The active involvement of investors, academics, and civil society organizations not only promotes accountability, but also brings transparency, multidisciplinary expertise, and legitimacy to decision making in the ICT sector. For instance, multistakeholder collaboration can deepen the understanding of the human rights impacts on the ground and bridge potential gaps when anticipating how a product or service can be (mis)used or affect different populations in different contexts. Whether responding to laws demanding government access to company data, control over online content, or the ability to shut down networks entirely, collaboration between companies and other actors can increase leverage and improve advocacy efforts.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, government pressure on the private sector to provide data is on the rise. The GNI assessments provide a roadmap for how companies can work with other stakeholders to make sure they are responding to such requests and demands in a rights-respecting manner, during the current crisis and beyond.
