Sep 5, 2022 | Internet Freedoms, Statements
Presented by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureates Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov at the Freedom of Expression Conference, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo 2 September 2022
We call for a world in which technology is built in service of humanity and where our global public square protects human rights above profits.
Right now, the huge potential of technology to advance our societies has been undermined by the business model and design of the dominant online platforms. But we remind all those in power that true human progress comes from harnessing technology to advance rights and freedoms for all, not sacrificing them for the wealth and power of a few.
We urge rights-respecting democracies to wake up to the existential threat of information ecosystems being distorted by a Big Tech business model fixated on harvesting people’s data and attention, even as it undermines serious journalism and polarises debate in society and political life.
When facts become optional and trust disappears, we will no longer be able to hold power to account. We need a public sphere where fostering trust with a healthy exchange of ideas is valued more highly than corporate profits and where rigorous journalism can cut through the noise.
Many governments around the world have exploited these platforms’ greed to grab and consolidate power. That is why they also attack and muzzle the free press. Clearly, these governments cannot be trusted to address this crisis. But nor should we put our rights in the hands of technology companies’ intent on sustaining a broken business model that actively promotes disinformation, hate speech and abuse.
The resulting toxic information ecosystem is not inevitable. Those in power must do their part to build a world that puts human rights, dignity, and security first, including by safeguarding scientific and journalistic methods and tested knowledge. To build that world, we must:
Bring an end to the surveillance-for-profit business model
The invisible ‘editors’ of today’s information ecosystem are the opaque algorithms and recommender systems built by tech companies that track and target us. They amplify misogyny, racism, hate, junk science and disinformation – weaponizing every societal fault line with relentless surveillance to maximize “engagement”. This surveillance-for-profit business model is built on the con of our supposed consent. But forcing us to choose between allowing platforms and data brokers to feast on our personal data or being shut out from the benefits of the modern world is simply no choice at all. The vast machinery of corporate surveillance not only abuses our right to privacy, but allows our data to be used against us, undermining our freedoms and enabling discrimination.
This unethical business model must be reined in globally, including by bringing an end to surveillance advertising that people never asked for and of which they are often unaware. Europe has made a start, with the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts. Now these must be enforced in ways that compel platforms to de-risk their design, detox their algorithms and give users real control. Privacy and data rights, to date largely notional, must also be properly enforced. And advertisers must use their money and influence to protect their customers against a tech industry that is actively harming people.
End tech discrimination and treat people everywhere equally
Global tech companies afford people unequal rights and protection depending on their status, power, nationality, and language. We have seen the painful and destructive consequences of tech companies’ failure to prioritize the safety of all people everywhere equally. Companies must be legally required to rigorously assess human rights risks in every country they seek to expand in, ensuring proportionate language and cultural competency. They must also be forced to bring their closed-door decisions on content moderation and algorithm changes into the light and end all special exemptions for those with the most power and reach. These safety, design, and product choices that affect billions of people cannot be left to corporations to decide. Transparency and accountability rules are an essential first step to reclaiming the internet for the public good.
Rebuild independent journalism as the antidote to tyranny
Big tech platforms have unleashed forces that are devastating independent media by swallowing up online advertising while simultaneously enabling a tech-fueled tsunami of lies and hate that drown out facts. For facts to stand a chance, we must end the amplification of disinformation by tech platforms. But this alone is not enough. Just 13% of the world’s population can currently access a free press. If we are to hold power to account and protect journalists, we need unparalleled investment in a truly independent media persevering in situ or working in exile that ensures its sustainability while incentivizing compliance with ethical norms in journalism.
21st century newsrooms must also forge a new, distinct path, recognizing that to advance justice and rights, they must represent the diversity of the communities they serve. Governments must ensure the safety and independence of journalists who are increasingly being attacked, imprisoned, or killed on the frontlines of this war on facts.
We, as Nobel Laureates, from across the world, send a united message: together we can end this corporate and technological assault on our lives and liberties, but we must act now. It is time to implement the solutions we already have to rebuild journalism and reclaim the technological architecture of global conversation for all humanity.
We call on all rights-respecting democratic governments to:
1. Require tech companies to carry out independent human rights impact assessments that must be made public as well as demand transparency on all aspects of their business – from content moderation to algorithm impacts to data processing to integrity policies.
2. Protect citizens’ right to privacy with robust data protection laws.
3. Publicly condemn abuses against the free press and journalists globally and commit funding and assistance to independent media and journalists under attack.
We call on the EU to:
4. Be ambitious in enforcing the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts so these laws amount to more than just ‘new paperwork’ for the companies and instead force them to make changes to their business model, such as ending algorithmic amplification that threatens fundamental rights and spreads disinformation and hate, including in cases where the risks originate outside EU borders.
5. Urgently propose legislation to ban surveillance advertising, recognizing this practice is fundamentally incompatible with human rights.
6. Properly enforce the EU General Data Protection Regulation so that people’s data rights are finally made reality.
7. Include strong safeguards for journalists’ safety, media sustainability and democratic guarantees in the digital space in the forthcoming European Media Freedom Act.
8. Protect media freedom by cutting off disinformation upstream. This means there should be no special exemptions or carve-outs for any organisation or individual in any new technology or media legislation. With globalised information flows, this would give a blank check to those governments and non-state actors who produce industrial scale disinformation to harm democracies and polarise societies everywhere.
9. Challenge the extraordinary lobbying machinery, the astroturfing campaigns and recruitment revolving door between big tech companies and European government institutions.
We call on the UN to:
10. Create a special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General focused on the Safety of Journalists (SESJ) who would challenge the current status quo and finally raise the cost of crimes against journalists.
Signed by:
Dmitry Muratov, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Click here to see the full list of signatories.
Aug 31, 2022 | DFF, Internet Freedoms, Statements
MANILA – We, Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia, concerned with the spread of disinformation in our region and its deleterious effect on democracy and human rights, have visited the Philippines, often described as the “patient zero” of the disinformation pandemic, in order to study this phenomenon, meet stakeholders who have been victimized by it and seek effective ways to combat it.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has conducted a Fact-finding Mission to the Philippines with two sitting members of parliament from Malaysia, Maria Chin Abdullah and Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen, and a former representative from Thailand, Pannika Wanich. The mission has served to throw light on the fact that disinformation not only endangers elections, but democracy at large.
Disinformation campaigns in the Philippines are often state-sanctioned, targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders, and activists.
These campaigns pose a direct threat to democracy because they are based in blanket accusations that generate extreme polarization by leveling down social complexities and imposing absolute dichotomies between enemies and friends, thus eliminating pluralism and the conditions for civilized dialogue, the cornerstones of a healthy democratic life. This has been shown clearly in the Philippines during the most recently held elections, when the widespread practice of “red-tagging”, accusations of links with the Communist insurgency, were used as weapons against political enemies, often leading to dire consequences.
“Disinformation often generates hatred, especially against vulnerable groups such as women. These campaigns are often strongly misogynistic, pandering to the worst societal prejudices against women and marginalized communities. The fight against disinformation is also the fight for equality and social justice, and civil society organizations fighting for the rights of women, LGBT communities and other vulnerable groups should play a prominent role in combating this problem,” said Ms. Chin Abdullah, also a member of APHR.
Disinformation thrives in environments where mainstream media, the traditional watchdog of those in power, has been widely discredited, and social media prevails as the main source of information. In the Philippines, 68% of the country’s population have regular access to the Internet, and there are over 92 million recorded social media users making the county a real battleground for disinformation. Filipinos are also more active on social media than their counterparts in any other Southeast Asian country, averaging 255 minutes of social media use per day.
The algorithms used by the social media giants generate “echo chambers” where users only find confirmation of their biases and are rarely exposed to contrasting opinions. In social media there are no journalistic standards, and opinions and facts mingle to the point of being indistinguishable. That makes the work of fact-checkers extremely important, but they can barely tackle the problem. As one of the participants said during a roundtable in our fact-finding mission, “fact-checking is five times slower than fake news.”
“The Philippine Parliament is urged to play an important role to investigate allegations of state-sanctioned disinformation campaigns and troll farms, and review or consider policies to monitor the social media giants and make them accountable while protecting people’s data privacy. But any legislation introduced as a way of tackling the disinformation pandemic should be limited and handled with extreme care, as it could be easily turned into censorship in the hands of authoritarian regimes, and it should never impinge on freedom of expression,” said Ms. Wanich.
Nevertheless, APHR welcomes initiatives to address the issue such as the formation of Task Force Kontra (Against) Fake News by the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC). We urge them to ensure transparency and table the results of such efforts in Parliament and make the reports public.
Throughout the fact-finding mission, it was often repeated that disinformation in the context of elections began long before the campaign period. It was revealed that organized and coordinated campaigns of political disinformation had been going on for years before the latest polls, amid a backdrop of impunity and censorship. When stakeholders started to take action against this phenomenon, there was a realization that it was already too late and the extent of disinformation had already been well-entrenched.
“The disinformation pandemic, in the Philippines and beyond, is too big to be addressed with piecemeal measures. It is necessary to find both a vaccine and a cure that work on a massive scale. The fight against disinformation must be part of national agendas everywhere with governments, civil society, and media rowing in the same direction. These agendas should include campaigns of voters’ education, media literacy programs, well-calibrated legislation, and fact-checking initiatives,” said Mr. Yii Lee Wuen.
Jun 9, 2022 | CCHR, DFF, Internet Freedoms, Reports
JAKARTA – Anggota parlemen dari Asia Tenggara telah meminta Indonesia, satu-satunya anggota G20 di Asia Tenggara untuk menggunakan Presidensinya di G20 untuk “menyuarakan aspirasi Global Selatan” dan mengangkat isu-isu yang secara khusus mempengaruhi kawasan.
Dalam sebuah kertas posisi yang diterbitkan hari ini, Anggota Parlemen ASEAN untuk Hak Asasi Manusia (ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, APHR) telah mendesak Indonesia untuk mengadvokasi dalam Pertemuan Puncak tanggapan global yang lebih kuat dan lebih kreatif terhadap kehancuran ekonomi yang disebabkan oleh konflik seperti yang terjadi di Myanmar, peningkatan substansial dalam dukungan keuangan global untuk transisi energi yang berkelanjutan, dan untuk menemukan cara mengurangi dampak transformasi digital dunia terhadap hak asasi manusia dan demokrasi.
“Indonesia ada dalam posisi di mana, berbeda dari yang lain, sebagai satu-satunya anggota G20 di Asia Tenggara dan negara demokrasi terbesar ketiga di dunia, dapat mewakili kepentingan dan aspirasi Global Selatan. Negara ini telah menunjukkan kepemimpinannya di ASEAN dan sekarang memiliki kesempatan untuk melakukannya di tingkat global, di mana ia dapat secara kreatif mencari solusi untuk tantangan yang, dengan gaungnya yang khas di kawasan kita, mempengaruhi umat manusia secara keseluruhan, ”kata Charles Santiago, Ketua APHR dan Anggota Parlemen di Malaysia.
APHR berpendapat bahwa cara-cara kreatif baru diperlukan untuk menanggapi biaya manusia dan ekonomi dari krisis seperti yang menghancurkan Myanmar, Ukraina, Yaman atau Suriah, mulai dari kenaikan harga komoditas, kekurangan pasokan pangan dan energi, hingga meningkatnya perdagangan manusia dan produksi serta perdagangan obat-obatan terlarang dan senjata. Karena organisasi internasional seperti PBB, atau kelompok-kelompok regional seperti ASEAN, seringkali gagal memitigasi dan menanggapi dampak ekonomi dari krisis semacam itu, Indonesia harus mengusulkan sebuah Kelompok Kerja baru di G20 guna membahas respon dari perekonomian terbesar di dunia ini.
Berhadapan dengan perubahan iklim, telah terbukti bahwa janji saat ini dari negara-negara untuk mengurangi emisi karbon tidak akan cukup melambatkan perubahan iklim, dan kebutuhan untuk beralih ke sumber energi terbarukan menjadi lebih mendesak dari sebelumnya. APHR mendesak Indonesia untuk memimpin G20 menyetujui percepatan penghentian penggunaan batu bara dan bahan bakar fosil, tetapi juga harus secara substansial meningkatkan dukungan keuangan global untuk transisi tersebut.
Terakhir, berhadapan dengan tantangan akibat kampanye disinformasi, perpecahan dan ujaran kebencian yang tesebar secara daring, APHR mendesak G20 untuk membahas dan mengidentifikasi langkah-langkah yang dapat diadopsi untuk mengatur pasar digital agar sejalan dengan demokrasi, mengakhiri penggunaan data pribadi orang yang invasif, dan meminta pertanggungjawaban platform daring atas model bisnis mereka yang berbahaya.
Klik di sini untuk membaca kertas posisi.
Jun 9, 2022 | CCHR, DFF, Internet Freedoms, Reports
JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia have called Indonesia, the only G20 member in Southeast Asia and its President this year, to “give voice to the aspirations of the Global South” and bring to the table issues that particularly affect the region, but also the world in general, at the group’s Summit which will be held in November this year in Jakarta.
In a position paper published today, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has urged Indonesia to advocate at the Summit for stronger and more creative global responses to the devastation caused by conflicts like that of Myanmar, a substantial increase in global financial support for a sustainable energy transition, and to find ways to reduce the impact of the world’s digital transformation on human rights and democracy.
“We, Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia, are urging the Indonesian Government to use its preeminent position to promote at the G20 a form of collective and inclusive collaboration among nations to address challenges that, having a specific resonance to our region, affect humanity as a whole,” said APHR in the Position Paper.
APHR suggests that new creative ways are necessary to prevent the human and economic costs of crises such as those devastating Myanmar, Ukraine, Yemen or Syria. As international organizations like the UN, or regional groups like ASEAN, have often failed to prevent atrocities, Indonesia should propose a new Working Group at the G20 to discuss responses from the largest economies in the world to those crises.
On the climate change front, it has become evident that current pledges from states to reduce carbon emissions will not be sufficient to slow climate change, and the necessity to transition to renewable sources of energy is more urgent than ever. APHR urges Indonesia to lead the G20 to agree to accelerate the phasing out from coal and fossil fuels, but it must also substantially increase global financial support for such a transition.
Lastly, and in face of the challenges posed by the spread online of disinformation campaigns, divisiveness and hate-speech, APHR urges the G20 to discuss and identify measures that can be adopted to regulate the digital marketplace along democratic lines, put an end to invasive use of people’s personal data, and hold online platforms accountable for their harmful business models.
Click here to read the position paper.
Jun 8, 2022 | CCHR, DFF, Internet Freedoms, Opinion Articles
By Eva Kusuma Sundari.
Indonesia has made a long journey since the fall of president Soeharto in 1998, from military dictatorship to a vibrant democracy in which most of its citizens enjoy greater political freedoms. This accomplishment has been accompanied by an impressive economic growth that has placed the vast archipelago in the Group of 20, where it is the only country representing ASEAN.
By holding the G20 presidency this year, and hosting the group’s summit in November, Indonesia has a unique position to give a voice to the often-sidelined aspirations of the Global South.
The Indonesian government should use that position to promote a form of inclusive collaboration among nations to address challenges that affect humanity as a whole. Among them are the need for stronger and more creative global responses to issues like the devastation caused by armed conflicts such as in Myanmar or Ukraine, the need to increase financial support for a sustainable energy transition, or the impact of the world’s digital transformation on human rights and democracy.
Indonesia has succeeded in sending its military back to the barracks. The country’s recent history of dictatorship, turmoil, and democratization has given it an invaluable wealth of experience that can provide a distinct advantage in its perspective on conflicts and their consequences.
Alongside other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia is already leading efforts within ASEAN to find peaceful solutions to the crisis in Myanmar, acting on the belief that only democracy and stability can foster economic development.
Now Indonesia could use the experience gained by its own history and propose a new working group at the G20 to discuss judicious responses from the largest economies in the world to crises like the one in Myanmar or those plunging countries such as Ukraine, Syria or Yemen into chaos. And, as the third biggest democracy in the world and the country with the largest Muslim population, Indonesia is particularly suited to play a role as peacemaker in the Muslim world.
Wars throughout the world are having devastating consequences that are not confined within national borders: from rising commodity prices, shortages of food and energy supplies, to increases in human trafficking and the production and trade of illicit drugs and weapons. In Myanmar, poverty has skyrocketed to rates not seen in 20 years.
The community of nations is in dire need of alternative platforms to explore new ways to tackle such crises. These platforms would work as complementary channels to global organizations like the United Nations, or regional groups like ASEAN, that have often failed to prevent atrocities, or alleviate the worst consequences of these wars. The G20 could be one of them and Indonesia is uniquely suited to initiate the discussion.
Meanwhile, the need for a sustainable energy transition is already in the G20 agenda, and Indonesia should be commended for acknowledging the importance of taking collective action to phase out fossil fuels and adopt renewable sources of energy.
The stakes have never been higher. The latest study from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has confirmed that current pledges to reduce carbon emissions will not be sufficient to slow global warming.
All countries must cut global emissions by 43 percent and reach net-zero carbon emissions by the early 2050s to avoid a climate catastrophe. Implementing a sustainable energy transition that takes into account the needs and perspectives of all the people involved is both the most efficient and cost-effective way to do so.
As a vital step, Indonesia must lead the G20 to agree to accelerate the phasing out from coal and fossil fuels, and to ensure there is sufficient financial support to do so. With its presidency, the country finds itself in the position to push for G20 countries to increase their financial commitments and assistance to those facing major barriers in their energy transition.
Last, but by no means least, as economies and societies at large increasingly move toward digitalization, it is no longer possible to ignore the powerful role played by “tech giants”, or big technological companies, in particular Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple, in shaping not only the world economy, but the state of democracy and human rights globally.
The services these tech giants offer come at a huge cost. By harvesting and selling our personal data in order to predict and shape consumers’ behavior, they track our online behavior in every view, click, purchase, and interaction, in order to analyze and monetize it. The profits obtained by these enormous companies on the back of people’s personal data are bigger than some rich countries’ gross domestic product.
Their unregulated money-making model is also allowing them to profit from the spread of disinformation, divisiveness, and hate. And these phenomena are undermining democracy, stability, and social cohesion in many countries, from the United States, where conspiracy theories like Qanon are spreading like fire, to the Philippines, where online disinformation is rampant.
Indonesia leads the streamlining of digital issues in the various working groups of the G20, and rallies for an inclusive, empowering and sustainable digital transformation aimed at a resilient recovery from the pandemic. But it must also ensure that these discussions do not take place without addressing the damage that the Big Tech’s business models are having on people’s individual rights and democracy worldwide.
Indonesia is not new to playing a central role in world affairs. In 1955, it organized the Bandung Conference, a watershed moment that led to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement. The world has changed enormously since then, but Indonesia finds itself now in a position where it can once again represent the interests and aspirations of the Global South and help to find solutions to problems that deeply affect all the inhabitants of this planet.
Eva Kusuma Sundari is a board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and a former member of Indonesian House of Representatives.
This article first appeared in The Jakarta Post.
