ARTICLE 19 thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report on freedom of expression in new frontiers, which rightly shows how the intersection of public and private powers and the convergence of geopolitical and corporate interests is exacerbating the current crisis for the right to freedom of opinion and expression and international law more generally.
States continue to repress and weaponise free expression across the globe, increasingly under the guise of securitisation.
At the same time, we are continuing to witness the privatisation of free expression in the hands of a small number of technology companies. At all levels of the infrastructure stack, their reach and resources bring unprecedented control over today’s information environment, often with insufficient accountability and transparency.
The largest social media platforms control the flow of information online through their content moderation and curation, advertisement practices, and monetisation systems, with little incentive to conduct meaningful human rights due diligence and to address business models that contribute to a range of harmful information online, from ‘disinformation’ to ‘hate speech’. Similarly, a small number of companies exert substantial influence over the design, development, training, and deployment of artificial intelligence systems, including generative artificial intelligence. The underlying infrastructure on which communication depends – from connectivity, to cloud services, to data storage – is also increasingly dominated by the very same companies.
This concentration of power means that a small number of companies can effectively become de facto gatekeepers of the online information ecosystem and create dependencies for public institutions, critical infrastructure, media outlets, and ordinary users that impact everyone’s right to freedom of expression.
We call for regulation to include measures aimed at reducing the excessive economic and political power of dominant technology companies and creating stronger incentives for them to respect human rights.
Special Rapporteur, ARTICLE 19 would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your invaluable contributions to the promotion and protection of freedom of expression over the past six years. Under your leadership, the mandate has remained a guiding light for journalists, human rights defenders, and other civil society actors who continue to speak out amid this crisis for free expression.
Thank you.