Internet tax protest, Hungary 2014. Photo by Amy Brouillette, RDR
This is the RADAR, Ranking Digital Rights’ bi-monthly newsletter. This edition was sent on February 10, 2021. Subscribe here to get The RADAR by email.
The 2020 RDR Index is almost here!
Who topped the charts? Who tanked? How did newcomers Amazon and Alibaba match up against the world’s other leading digital platforms? Has anything improved over the last five years? And what happens when you ask Big Tech companies to tell you how their algorithms work? (Spoiler alert: Not much.)
In the coming days, our team will put the finishing touches on the 2020 RDR Corporate Accountability Index! Our latest human rights-based ranking of the world’s most powerful tech and telecom companies (and a snazzy new website) will go live on February 24.
We hope you’ll join us for our public launch! At this virtual event hosted by New America, RDR’s Jessica Dheere and Rebecca MacKinnon will show highlights and key insights from our new body of research and then open up a conversation with an all-star panel, including:
- Nabiha Syed, President, The Markup
- Marta Tellado, President and CEO, Consumer Reports
- Marina Madale, General Manager: Sustainability and Shared Value, MTN
With these leading voices in our field, we’ll talk about how policymakers, advocates, and investors can use RDR data to hold tech and telecom companies accountable for protecting users’ rights in 2021.
The scan: What we’re reading
Tech is having a reckoning. Tech investors? Not so much via Technology Review
“…a real reckoning among VCs would require a reorientation of how Silicon Valley thinks, and right now it is still focused on ‘one, and only one, metric that matters, and that’s financial return.’” Read at technologyreview.com
Kudos to our friends at Mozilla for launching the 2020 Internet Health Report!
A healthier internet is possible. In its fourth year, Mozilla’s Internet Health Report reflects on major events of 2020 through the lenses of racial justice and labor rights and asserts that meaningful transparency must be the first step towards platform accountability.
Final pings: Where to find us
Join us for a first look at the 2020 RDR Index!
February 24 at 11:00 EST/16:00 GMT | Register here
Webinar: Investor Alliance for Human Rights and RDR
February 25 at 11:00 EST/16:00 GMT | Register here
Join the Investor Alliance for Human Rights and RDR for an exclusive webinar where RDR researchers will discuss key findings from the 2020 RDR Index and then join a panel discussion with Lauren Compere of Boston Common Asset Management and Carlo Drauth of Telefónica.
Social Dilemma virtual tour
February 25 at 13:00 EST/18:00 GMT | Register here
Join the Social Dilemma virtual tour with RDR’s own Jessica Dheere, and other speakers including Safiya Noble and Rasha Abdul-Rahim, for a discussion examining how a human rights lens can help us begin to imagine the way forward and hold these platforms accountable.
