Understanding how internal company decision-making works, along with the tradeoffs companies face when responding to government mandates and operating across diverse regulatory environments, is complex and challenging. This tabletop compendium brings together a series of exercises designed to foster discussion and raise awareness about how companies respond to government demands and how they can better respect rights in the process. The exercises are structured to reflect a variety of companies across the technology stack, different types of government mandates, and the diverse regulatory landscapes in which companies operate.
The compendium builds on the “Across the Stack” tool, developed by GNI and BSR, to explore how human rights due diligence considerations, including those around privacy and freedom of expression, intersect with different types of companies across the tech stack. The compendium is intended for use by civil society, researchers, and companies and is a “living tool,” with tabletop exercises added as they are developed. While each exercise outlines the relevant legal context, company background, and a set of questions to guide discussions with participants, and while they cover different types of companies, government mandates, and regulatory environments, each exercise is unique in the questions it asks and its structure.