Tuesday December 7th, 16:30-17:30 (UTC): Stakeholder Roles for Human Rights Due Diligence
Jointly organized by GNI, Cathrine Bloch Veiberg (Danish Institute for Human Rights) Agustina Del Campo, Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE), Usama Khilji, Bolo Bhi, and Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, CELE.
With Cathrine Bloch Veiberg, Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, René van Eijk, and Shireen Mazari.
This session will address the question of stakeholder roles and responsibilities for human rights in the digital space, focusing on human rights due diligence (HRDD). The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) provide a key framework for establishing how international human rights instruments apply in the online context, but the practice of HRDD has primarily been limited to the private sector.
Wednesday December 8th, 8:30-10:00 (UTC): Protecting Human Rights in the State-Business Nexus
With Deniz Utlu, Théo Jaekel, Moira Oliver, Sebastian Smart, and Lucie Audibert.
This session will build upon the UNGPs, focusing on the implementation of pillar one: the state’s duty to protect against human rights abuses by business. In particular, it will analyze situations where states contract with, partner with, or license from technology companies (the state-business nexus). It seeks to identify how to increase state capacity, internal policy coherence, and transparency at this intersection to improve public-private partnerships in the technology sector.
With GNI academic member, Courtney Radsch.
While much of the attention has been focused on the dominant social media platforms, this session will look at content moderation occurring beyond this top layer of the internet ecosystem to hosting providers, data centers, and ISPs. It will explore the complexities and challenges of content moderation, and why content moderation demands more than a one size fits all approach.
Wednesday December 8th, 13:50-14:50 (UTC): Data Justice: What is to be done?
With Parminder Jeet Singh, Linnet Taylor, Pansy Tlakula , Alex Walden, and Maria Paz Canales.
This session will focus on how to produce more inclusive, equitable, and just outcomes. While the impacts and harms of increased access and use of personal data are widely acknowledged, not enough attention has been given to the ways that data usage may be unfair or unequitable. In particular, attention needs to be given to how marginalized communities are made visible, represented, and treated in the production of digital data.
Wednesday December 8th, 14:05-15:35 (UTC): Democracy and Online Voting: Challenges and Innovations
With GNI civil society member Apar Gupta, Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF).
This roundtable will take place in the form of a debate that will seek to discuss, through the participation of experts from different sectors, the challenges posed by online voting, and, if possible, how they can be addressed. It will consider the special characteristics of voting compared to other activities carried online, the technical challenges, the need for remote voting presented by events like COVID-19, and other debates.
Wednesday December 8th, 15:15 UTC-16:45 (UTC): Reinterpreting Free Speech Guarantees for the Digital Era
With GNI Board Chair, David Kaye.
This session will explore how international law and our understanding of freedom of expression, developed in an offline world, have sometimes proven inadequate to protect rights and manage risks given digital transformation. It will seek to develop concrete ideas for how different actors can contribute to the continued evolution of international law on freedom of expression that could influence policymaking or be leveraged in advocacy work.
Wednesday December 8th, 15:50 – 17:20 (UTC): Networked trust: Encryption Choices to a Reliable Internet
With GNI civil society Mallory Knodel, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).
This session will tackle contemporary conflicts towards encryption policies to address if and how encryption can affect a collective sense of trust online. Specifically, it will look at how various encryption workarounds might undermine that trust. It will draw upon a cross-continental and multi stakeholder panel, looking at different encryption policies proposed across regions and their potential impacts.
Thursday December 9th, 14:05 – 15:35 (UTC): Dynamic Coalition on the Sustainability of Journalism and News Media
With GNI academic member Courtney Radsch and civil society members Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) and Internews.
Thursday December 9th, 08:30 -10:00 (UTC): Economic and Social Inclusion and Human Rights
With GNI company member Steve Crown from Microsoft.
Friday December 10th, 10:15 – 11:45 (UTC): Multistakeholder Initiatives in Content Governance
With GNI academic member Courtney Radsch.
This session will evaluate three of the most important transnational content governance mechanisms developed in the last two years – the Christchurch Call, the Facebook Oversight Board, and The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism. It will assess the ways these mechanisms are organized, the ways they empower different stakeholders, and the extent to which they can have a real impact on social media platforms’ content governance.