Yesterday we released the 2022 Big Tech Scorecard, our annual evaluation of how transparent the world’s most powerful digital platforms are about their policies and practices affecting human rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression and privacy. In a time of upheaval and change, RDR is closely watching how committed the world’s Big Tech companies are to human rights, good governance, and transparency. In other words, we’re keeping receipts.
For the sixth year in a row, none of the 14 digital platforms we evaluated earned a passing grade. Yes, the scores for most companies—and the average of all of them—did tick up slightly this year, but we had hoped for more.
Unfortunately, when it comes to aligning their policies and practices with human rights standards and their obligations under the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, our data shows that companies are content to conduct business as usual when the state of the world demands anything but.
If there’s one recommendation we have for every company we rank, it’s to accelerate their efforts to develop and implement rights-respecting policies and practices across their operations. We suggest that they use our human rights–based standards as an easy-to-follow roadmap.
Browse the 2022 Big Tech Scorecard. Here’s what you can expect:
- Key findings that provide insight into the data and note year-over-year progress and decline, emerging patterns and longtime trends, problem spots, and opportunities for change.
- Individual company scorecards, our most popular feature, which highlight each company’s scores in the context of recent developments and dive deep into company performance in our governance, freedom of expression, and privacy categories.
| Alibaba | Kakao | |
| Amazon | Meta | VK |
| Apple | Microsoft | Yahoo |
| Baidu | Samsung | Yandex |
| Tencent |
- New ways to explore our data by comparing company and service scores; looking at scores on groups of indicators from across our categories, what we’re calling Lenses (in beta); and tracking performance over time.
- TL;DR? Check out the executive summary. It hits all the high notes and includes our policy recommendations.
Companion Essays
In addition to our data and analysis, each year we publish companion essays, authored by members of our team, that interpret our findings through the lens of pressing public issues. Here’s what we’re thinking about now:
In recent years, nearly all of the digital platforms that RDR evaluates have agreed to speak with us about our standards and our assessments of their policies and practices. But three Chinese companies we evaluate have left us hanging. Jie Zhang explores the reasons that Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent respond with silence when we come knocking.
Why Won’t Chinese Companies Talk to Us? It’s Complicated.
For a global internet that supports and sustains human rights, we need a global online advertising ecosystem that does the same thing, Policy Director Nathalie Maréchal argues. She not only offers a prescription for fixing online advertising but also makes a case for how this could help solve some of the problems with unpaid online content.
We Can’t Govern the Internet without Governing Online Advertising. Here’s How to Do It.
Jan Ryzdak, our company and investor engagement manager, explains how a combination of unfair and lax regulations at the Securities and Exchange Commission has tipped the balance of power against ordinary shareholders in recent years. This has allowed companies like Meta and Alphabet/Google to suppress shareholder participation. At Meta, for instance, shareholders have proposed scrapping the dual-class structure every year since 2014. Without Mark Zuckerberg’s votes, this resolution would have netted 90% support in 2021.
It’s Time to Bring Down the Barriers Blocking Shareholders on Human Rights
Where to find us
Ranking Digital Rights | Charting the Future of Big Tech Accountability
May 4 at 10:30 AM EDT
After RDR Director Jessica Dheere kicks things off with highlights from the Big Tech Scorecard, Policy Director Nathalie Maréchal will moderate a panel of platform policy and advocacy superstars. Together they will explore the road ahead for corporate accountability, including major regulatory developments, the growing role of shareholder advocacy, and new strategies for holding Big Tech accountable for our human rights.
Investor Alliance for Human Rights | Big Tech Scorecard: Data-Driven Investor Engagement with Tech Companies
May 5 at 11:00 AM EDT
Join IAHR, RDR, and expert speakers to discuss the findings from the 2022 Big Tech Scorecard and their relevance for ESG investing.
RDR media hits
Tech Policy Press: Justin Hendrix covered the 2022 Big Tech Scorecard’s release, stating: “Ironically, Ranking Digital Rights finds Twitter in the top position largely due to its showing in the “freedom of expression” category ‘which focuses on the kinds of actions companies take to moderate and curate content, suspend and remove accounts, and respond to government and other third-party demands’…Twitter was purchased Monday by billionaire Elon Musk, who has faulted the company for its policies on speech and content moderation.”
Read More at Tech Policy Press
France 24 Español: RDR’s Leandro Ucciferri, Global Partnerships Manager, appeared on France 24 to talk about Elon Musk’s vision of free speech in relation to his takeover bid for Twitter. “There’s a genuine concern that Twitter would backtrack years of progress and turn into a space prone to further hate speech, spam, and harassment.”
Tech Policy Press: Policy Director Nathalie Maréchal was interviewed on Tech Policy Press’s Sunday Show Podcast, along with Matthew Crain, author of Profit over Privacy: How Surveillance Advertising Conquered the Internet. Their discussion focused on the history of the internet economy and surveillance advertising as well as policy options in the US to address privacy and big tech regulation.
Los Angeles Times: Company and Investor Engagement Manager Jan Rydzak discussed Musk’s interest in buying the company for the purported purpose of defending free speech on the platform, saying: “There’s an enormous irony that in doing so he would render himself unaccountable to shareholders and the broader public. That entire vector of influence that responsible investors have over a company would completely vanish.”
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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.
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