Jason Pielemeier became Executive Director of GNI in May 2022, and under his leadership, the organization met several important milestones, including the completion of GNI’s strategic review and fourth cycle of independent assessments. 2023 was also a crucial year for internet governance and tech
accountability.
The following interview provides an overview of how he navigated the year and looks forward to continuing to strengthen GNI’s mission to protect and advance privacy and freedom of expression in the tech sector.
GNI Executive Director Jason Pielemeier
Can you elaborate on GNI’s most significant achievements in 2023? How do these accomplishments align with GNI’s overall mission and goals?
Last year was my first full year as Executive Director and I am very proud of what we accomplished. With the logistical restrictions of the pandemic largely behind us, GNI and our members lost no time consolidating and implementing the recommendations from our strategic review, concluding the fourth GNI assessment cycle, and continuing to expand our membership, presence, and impact around the world.
This work tied together beautifully. As we navigated the course chartered by the Strategic Review, guided by our wonderful Chair and Vice Chair, David Kaye and Agustina Del Campo, we refined GNI’s mission and narrative and began building a new website to better showcase our work. We also hired new staff to expand opportunities for shared learning and member engagement. Additional regional learning calls, global workshops, and expert panels featuring the diverse views and broad expertise of our members helped us identify and respond to evolving forms of censorship and surveillance, understand and guide the evolution of new technologies and use cases, and manage our organization’s growth.
We also expanded our presence, including by holding our first two Board meetings ever outside the Global North – in Nairobi and San Jose – and participating in events across Brazil, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, and Thailand, as well as in the US and Europe.
The fourth GNI assessment cycle reinforced the importance of GNI’s commitment to protecting freedom of expression and privacy in the tech sector, revealing critical insights into the challenges and adaptations companies faced in a changing global environment. In 2023, we reflected on the lessons and learnings from this cycle, and considered how to further evolve and enhance the process in the next cycle.
Read GNI’s Annual Report 2023: Consolidating Norms into Regulation
As you anticipated last year, 2023 marked a pivotal shift from voluntary to mandatory transparency and accountability within the tech industry, thanks in no small part to the European Union. How did GNI and its members respond?
2023 was a landmark year for content regulation: we saw the EU pass the Digital Services Act (DSA), the UK pass the Online Safety Act (OSA), and numerous other tech-focused bills proposed around the world. At the same time, the EU and its member states took further steps to enact the first wave of serious mandatory human rights due diligence laws, including the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which require large companies, regardless of sector, to take affirmative steps to address human rights.
GNI has been engaged in these processes for years. I remember my first GNI Board meeting in the fall of 2017, where as a freshly minted Policy Director I facilitated a discussion with Prabhat Agarwal of the European Commission on the DSA and moderated an event with the UK government focused on the Online Harms “green paper,” which eventually became the OSA. Following those conversations, we developed a forward-looking policy brief on Content Regulation & Human Rights, which has served as an evergreen advocacy resource that has allowed us to meaningfully shape these emerging regulations.
One of my favorite moments of 2023, was dining at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg with the five key committee rapporteurs working on the CSDDD. Together with other business and human rights experts, we engaged in deep and meaningful discussions about the best ways to build regulatory power that recognizes, incentivizes, and enforces responsible business conduct. Seven months later, we held our Annual Learning Forum and other events in Brussels, where we drew connections between the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, and the GNI framework on one hand, and the AI Act, the CSDDD, the DSA, and the OSA on the other.
What impact do you believe these largely European initiatives will have on the rest of the world?
These regulations will echo globally. We are already seeing “online safety acts” being proposed in Sri Lanka and Singapore, and due diligence proposals emerging in Brazil and India. Some of these reflect Global North trends, but many include unique modifications and innovations. GNI has analyzed and commented on many of these initiatives, repeatedly calling for them to be consistent with and anchored in the time-tested, globally-applicable human rights framework.
We have sent the same message to and through multilateral initiatives that attempt to synchronize and share practices across jurisdictions. For instance, GNI attended and spoke at UNESCO’s Internet for Trust Conference in February and repeatedly contributed to the process that resulted in their “Guidelines on the Governance of Digital Platforms.” In addition, we joined the OECD’s Network of Experts on AI and partnered with the UN Human Rights Office to develop important guidance on the development and use of generative artificial intelligence.
Divergence across jurisdictions and unintended consequences are expected. However, we believe coordination, information sharing, and collaboration among stakeholders can help improve regulatory design and implementation, including corporate compliance and government enforcement, while safeguarding fundamental rights. Collaboration among actors with diverse regional and stakeholder backgrounds can help mitigate against misuse of regulatory powers and precedents, as well as fragmentation across jurisdictions.
What emerging trends or issues do you see as the most significant opportunities for GNI in the coming year?
In 2024, GNI will continue to help our members inform emerging regulations, while adapting our own assessment framework and holding the line against inappropriate government demands and restrictions. Stakeholder engagement, risk assessment/due diligence practices, and transparency are all practices whose roots are firmly planted in existing business and human rights frameworks, and are flowering repeatedly across emerging regulations and jurisdictions.
GNI has and will continue to emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement in both regulatory design and as a critical element of corporate compliance. In addition, we will continue to draw lessons from our own deep experience working with our members to identify and facilitate good practices related to human rights risk assessment and mitigation. We will also continue to push governments and companies for more meaningful transparency.
Finally, GNI will use the next year to continue to expand our staff and finalize a series of governance-related reforms that came out of our strategic review. We are excited to streamline our Board and welcome new Board members bringing fresh perspectives and leadership to our organization.