This is The Radar, Ranking Digital Rights’ newsletter. This edition was sent on April 6, 2021. Subscribe here to get The Radar by email.
Same Rigorous Research and Rankings; Fresh New Look!
Over the last year, we’ve been hard at work piloting new ways of deepening our impact by making our data and insights easier to access and use by our diverse range of stakeholders. This includes policymakers, investors, and digital rights advocates around the world.
Today, we’re unwrapping a little gift to ourselves by giving that work a bold new brand and a new digital home. We are thrilled to be able to share them with you. 🎁
Our colorful new brand, designed by In-House International, is vibrant, dynamic, and bold. (Just like we are.) The upward arrows reflect our drive to hold companies accountable and help them improve, while the circle gives a nod to the data points that we collect and draw on in our work.
They also underscore the new tagline encapsulating our mission: Advancing corporate accountability for human rights in the digital age.
We’ve designed our new website to be more attractive and user-friendly as well as better organized to reflect our expanding range of activities in addition to highlighting our core products, the RDR Index and the Big Tech and Telco Giants scorecards.
3 New Sections Reflect Our Growth
Policy Engagement: featuring the work we do to inform policy development, and gathering our enterprise reports, hearing testimony and comments, and statements we’ve signed onto in one place.
Investor Guidance: highlighting our collaboration with institutional investors to push the companies we evaluate to recognize shortcomings in their policies and practices that could lead to material risks.
Get Involved: featuring corporate accountability research and campaigns from digital rights organizations around the world and a soon-to-come new trove of resources to guide researchers.
We’re Hiring!
RDR is growing, and we’re looking for team members who get up in the morning to hold tech companies accountable for their impact on our rights and our societies. Check out our Opportunities page to learn more about our open positions, which are also linked below. We will accept applications until the positions are filled. Please share them with anyone you know who might be interested.
Senior Communications Associate
Shareholders Face Massive Barriers to Holding Big Tech Accountable
CC BY 2.0 Eric Kayne/AP Images for SumofUS
Shareholders committed to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues have emerged as a powerful voice in the push for corporate accountability in the tech sector. But they face an uphill battle. The rules governing shareholder activism are tipping the balance of power even further toward corporate giants. In 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversees stock markets and the companies traded on them, enacted a set of rules that marginalize smaller shareholders seeking to hold companies accountable. The draconian new requirements stifle investors’ ability to file proposals, secure support for them, and keep them on the ballot.
Dual-class share structures work hand in hand with the new rules to disenfranchise shareholders, entrench corporate royalty, and allow them to escape accountability for human rights issues. As the number of tech companies adopting skewed voting structures skyrockets, it is becoming clear that the time to act is now. We are calling on human rights groups worldwide to join the push to dismantle these barriers.
RDR Media Hits
Senior Policy & Partnerships Manager Nathalie Maréchal led our commentary on the response of tech companies to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She spoke to NBC and NPR’s Sunday Morning Edition about the role of Telegram, and discussed war-time content moderation challenges in the Washington Post’s Tech 202, saying: “the more complicated and nuanced you try to make your content rules, the harder they are to enforce.” Finally, she joined Access Now’s Natalia Krapiva on WNPR’s Where We Live to talk about how the Russian government controls journalism and social media, and how Russians circumvent online censorship.
Save the Dates
April 27: The Big Tech Scorecard launches!
May 4: The Future of Big Tech Accountability (online)
We’ll be presenting the key findings from this year’s Big Tech Scorecard. The findings will contribute to a conversation with panelists to take stock of our movement’s recent victories and challenges, and chart the path ahead.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022, from 10am-12pm EDT
Watch your inbox for more details.
Support Ranking Digital Rights!
If you’re reading this, you probably know all too well how tech companies wield unprecedented power in the digital age. RDR helps hold them accountable for their obligations to protect and respect their users’ rights.
As a nonprofit initiative that receives no corporate funding, we need your support. Do your part to help keep tech power in check and make a donation. Thank you!
