From June 11-14, members of the Ranking Digital Rights team were in Tunis, Tunisia, for the seventh annual RightsCon conference, organized by Access Now. We held discussions with human rights and technology advocates and experts from around the world.
On Thursday June 13, we held our flagship session “The Ranking Digital Rights 2019 Corporate Accountability Index: Which companies have improved their respect for your rights?” RDR Director Rebecca MacKinnon presented an overview of the results of the 2019 RDR Index and provided a progress report on which companies have made the greatest effort to improve their respect for users’ rights in the past year, and in what ways. She was joined by a panel of experts who offered reactions to the latest Index findings, insights about recent trends around the world, as well as strategies for getting companies to build respect for human rights into their policies and practices:
- Rebecca MacKinnon, Director, Ranking Digital Rights
- Estelle Massé, Senior Policy Analyst and Global Data Protection Lead, Access Now
- Geert Paemen, Director for Sustainability and Non-Financial KPIs, Telefónica
- Amalia Toledo Hernández, Project Coordinator, Funcación Karisma
- Julie Owono, Executive Director, Internet Sans Frontières (moderator)
RDR also organized two other sessions:
On Thursday June 13, RDR Senior Research Analyst Nathalie Maréchal led the roundtable “It’s the business model, stupid! Targeted advertising and human rights”. She presented findings from ongoing research on human rights harms associated with targeted advertising, including some draft indicators designed to evaluate companies’ disclosures and practices related to targeted advertising, and sought input on next steps from RightsCon attendees.
On Friday June 14, RDR Corporate Accountability Editor and Global Voices (GV) Advox Editor for the MENA region Afef Abrougui led the session “Report, rinse, repeat! Learn to report on tech and human rights violations with Global Voices and Ranking Digital Rights.” This was a workshop based on our forthcoming toolkit, built by Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) and GV, that wasdesigned to help advocates, researchers and journalists report effectively on human rights abuses that take place on technology platforms and telecommunications networks.
We also participated in several other RightsCon sessions:
On Wednesday June 12, Research and Engagement Manager Laura Reed spoke at the session “Measuring respect for human rights – Using benchmarks to create a race to the top in the ICT sector” hosted by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). Panelists explained how benchmarks can engage companies on their human rights impact and provided an interactive demonstration of their benchmark data and analysis, as well as examples of success in improving corporate respect for human rights.
On Wednesday June 12, Nathalie Maréchal spoke at the session “Big Tech and the future of journalism: Reinventing news and information in the age of Google and Facebook” hosted by Free Press and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD). This session considered the impact of the digital economy on democratic societies, with a look at the benefits and harms of a world where global platforms are dominant distributors of news and information as well as major forums for public debate.
On Wednesday June 12, Nathalie Maréchal spoke at the session “Beyond the hype: AI innovation and human rights in the telecoms sector” hosted by Vodafone Group. This panel provided perspectives on the use of AI technology in the telecommunications sector, and aimed to draw best practice and evaluate whether current mechanisms are ethical and rights-respecting.
On Wednesday June 12 at 10:30am Rebecca MacKinnon spoke at the session “From Call to Action: Visions for a Contract for the Web” hosted by The Web Foundation. This panel provided an overview of the “Contract for the Web,” a commitment to protecting the open web as a public good for individuals, and allowed experts to offer insights and recommendations for its development.
On Wednesday June 12, Rebecca MacKinnon spoke at the session “Improving the net: Applying UNESCO’s internet universality R.O.A.M indicators for evidence-based policy-making.” UNESCO presented its Internet Universality R.O.A.M indicators and discussed the project’s impact in improving national internet policies and contributing to sustainable development.
On Thursday June 13, Nathalie Maréchal spoke at the session “Political ads on social networks: Tearing the curtains of opacity” hosted by Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC). The panelists in this session each presented the advances in their research on political advertising in social networks, and discussed ways to continue moving forward in the research and transparency of political advertising on social networks.
On Thursday June 13, Afef Abrougui facilitated the session “Old crisis, novel means: Applying new tools to encourage company action in support of civic freedoms and human rights defenders” hosted by BHRRC and The B Team. The panel discussed the “Shared space under pressure” guidelines, which offer companies a decision-making framework and menu of potential actions to increase private sector support for civic freedoms and defenders.
On Friday June 14 at 10:30am Nathalie Maréchal spoke at the session “Moving Beyond the Problem: Pathways to meaningful consent online” hosted by the Essex Business and Human Rights Project. This session discussed the idea of consent as a tool for giving individuals online more control, and included audience participation to facilitate new thinking about the issues of consent.
On Friday June 14, Rebecca MacKinnon spoke at the session “Tunis +13¾: From the Tunis Agenda to RightsCon Tunis, it’s been a lifetime of internet governance.” The session covered the current internet governance debate and its history from the people who helped draft one of its founding documents.
On Friday June 14, Afef Abrougui spoke at the session “Tech policy, AI & investment in the GCC: A path to digital development or digital dystopia?” co-hosted by SMEX, CYRILLA Collaborative, Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. This roundtable looked at underexplored relationships between global technology companies and governments in the digitally developed GCC, interrogated their impact on human rights, and highlighted the dilemmas raised when tech companies do business in these countries and/or receive investment from them.
