RightsCon Toronto 2018

Governments, academia, international organizations, and global platforms are going back to the drawing board, contemplating their capabilities and obligations regarding human rights in the digital space. Numerous challenges to freedom of expression in the digital information ecosystem have prompted this reflection, with all eyes on global platforms that operate across borders – arguably wielding the most power to shape human rights policy on the web.

The expansion of global platforms raises new questions about the responsibilities of public and private actors in protecting human rights. On one hand, platforms may be seen to act as de facto sovereigns, wielding greater economic power than many nations and imposing their own rules to govern user behavior and expression. On the other hand, platforms may serve as mechanisms to extend the power of national governments. Under domestic law as currently understood in most countries, platforms may lawfully constrain (through TOS or Community Guidelines) individual users in ways that a state may not -- for example, by prohibiting offensive-but-lawful speech or by silencing individual users without fair process. A state that coerces or persuades a private platform to suppress particular users or ideas can effectively extend its own power beyond the limits set in IHRL.

Our workshop seeks to understand how to conceptualize obligations of both states and global digital platforms in the current digital landscape. What are their roles and responsibilities in democracies and non-democracies alike? How should domestic law, international human rights law, and platform terms of service/community guidelines interact in order to protect human rights online? How do extra-legal considerations such as user trust and economic competition shape the answers to these questions?