Blog

Haiti

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Flickr Creative Commons | UNDP

We are all shocked and saddened by the devastation in Haiti. My first reaction, shared by many people around the world, was “What can I possibly to do help?” I’ve been struck by how quickly individuals and groups have used the Internet to organize, to inform, and to get food, money and medical supplies to Haiti. If you would like to learn more and to help, see below for information and ideas.

• Ushahidi aggregates information from sources on the ground in Haiti, here.
• The Network for Good provides information about where to donate, get information and directly connect to organizations on the ground in Haiti.
• Partners in Health, the organization founded by Paul Farmer that has been in Haiti for over 20 years, has launched a website (http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti), where you can learn more about Haiti, get breaking news, and donate.
• Global Voices Online is providing dedicated coverage of Haiti, here.
• Yahoo! News has a comprehensive Haiti Earthquake Topic page: http://news.yahoo.com/topics/haiti-earthquake.
• Yahoo! Mobile began a “Text to Help Haiti” campaign on our mobile homepage.

Happy Birthday GNI!

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Flickr Creative Commons | EPerales

The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is celebrating the first anniversary of its 2008 launch. In the past year, GNI participants have worked to promote privacy and free expression in a number of ways.

GNI has developed a human rights impact assessment tool (HRIA) to help companies identify when freedom of expression and privacy may be jeopardized or advanced, and to develop appropriate risk mitigation strategies.

GNI has convened shared learning events, on a number of topics including:

• Real and potential restrictions to freedom of expression in multiple locations around the world, including Argentina, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Moldova, Russia, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Korea, Zimbabwe and Italy.

• Law enforcement request issues in multiple locations around the world, including Belgium, the USA, China and Argentina.

• The use of Internet and telecommunications services during the elections in Iran.

• The Green Dam/Youth Escort software proposals in China.

GNI has contributed to public dialogue about the intersection of technology and human rights in a number of settings, including:

• The International Seminar on Business and Human Rights in Paris, held to mark the 60th anniversary of the UDHR;
• A briefing to update members of the U.S. Congress on GNI’s progress and multi-stakeholder approach;
• The conference on “Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology & New Media” at the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley;
• The Yahoo! Business and Human Rights Summit; and
• The 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference, hosted by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

GNI has also  hosted  outreach events and conversations for prospective members in Washington DC, Silicon Valley, Paris and Singapore.

For more details about GNI’s past year, as well as plans for the future, please go to http://www.globalnetworkinitiative.org/newsletter/index.php.

Yahoo! is proud to be a founding member of the GNI, and we look forward to continuing to work with our fellow participants to address threats to freedom of expression and privacy around the world. We hope to welcome new members to the GNI, and we will continue to engage with all stakeholders who share our goal of protecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy in the ICT sector around the globe.

Yahoo! Georgetown Fellow Event, November 17

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Evgeny Morozov, Yahoo!’s 2010 Georgetown Fellow, will be speaking at a seminar (co-sponsored by Yahoo!) on the Internet, free expression and authoritarian regimes. If you will be in the DC area on the 17th, please see below for more details and to RSVP.

Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Diplomacy

and the Mortara Center invite you to

THE INTERNET, FREE EXPRESSION AND AUTHORITARIANISM

Please join us to discuss the evolving nature of authoritarianism in the age of social media and digital communications. Our speakers will assess the impact of new communication technology on regime stability, free expression and civic engagement, and discuss the changing political environments in Russia, China, and Iran.

2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday, November 17th 2009

Mortara Center

3601 N. St. NW

Washington, DC

Click here to RSVP

Session I:         2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Evgeny Morozov

Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University

Coffee Break

Session II:        3:30 – 5:00 PM

Andrew Carvin

Senior Strategist, Social Media Desk, National Public Radio

Arvind Ganesan

Director of Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch

Shanthi Kalathil

Co-author, Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on

Authoritarian Rule

Marc Lynch

Professor, The George Washington University

This program is sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and the Mortara Center for International Studies at Georgetown University, with the generous support of the Schott Foundation and Yahoo!

Gossip, Rumors and Preaching to the Choir

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Flickr Creative Commons | Redvers

I spend a lot of time thinking about the Internet as a platform for social change and engagement, and also about how access to the Internet and technology broadens the mind and exposes people to diverse opinions and new information. When I consider everything that I have learned from logging on (How else could I have learned about this and this and THIS for free and in less than 10 minutes?!) and I think of the trillions (gajillions?) of bytes worth of information “out there”, and I really do believe in the power that the Internet has to bring us closer than we’ve ever gotten to the Jeffersonian ideal of a well-informed citizenry.

But what if the way that we typically use the Internet makes us less informed, and more closed-minded?  Dumber-er, if you will? That’s the premise of an interesting article by Elizabeth Kolbert, in the November 2 edition of the New Yorker.  The article reviews “On Rumors:  How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done,” the most recent in a series of books on the Internet and the virtual commons by legal scholar and current head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass R. Sunstein.

Sunstein’s premise is that consumers of information on the Internet tend to filter what they read, and that we all select sites that confirm and reinforce beliefs we already hold.  (I suppose the fact that I, a dedicated farmer’s market shopper/yoga enthusiast born in the People’s Republic of San Francisco, am linking to a New Yorker article and to Cass Sunstein’s book could demonstrate the narrowing of my own mind, but enough about me.) According to research cited in the article, continued exposure to only those who hold similar beliefs strengthens those beliefs and biases, and can lead to group polarization and extremism of all kinds.  It also allows lies and half truths to live on forever, because no matter how unfounded or bizarre the rumor, one can always find a community of fellow believers to keep it alive on the Interwebs.

The article stops short of offering a solution (I think you need to read the book for that.), but it does close with the view that it is tempting to assume that just because the Internet is being used “to produce a certain political effect, it [is] somehow destined to do so.”

I suppose that means, in the end, that the Internet is what we make of it. It can be a powerful platform for information and connecting disparate communities, but only if we work to make it so. Any thoughts on how we, as Internet users, companies, non-profits, academics and bloggers, can foster conversations as opposed to shouting? And might I have to consider reading blogs about, I don’t know, bear hunting and processed pork products?

Read the article and the book! And if you get the chance, let me know what you think.

Congratulations to Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

By BHRP

On October 19th, Secretary Clinton held a swearing-in ceremony for Michael Posner, who was sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Mike Posner has dedicated his life to fighting for a better world.  He spent over two decades (serving as its President and as Executive Director) at Human Rights First, the non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization whose mission is to protect people at risk around the world. He co-founded the Fair Labor Association, an organization that brings together corporations, local leaders, universities, and NGOs to promote corporate accountability for working conditions in the apparel industry. He also co-founded, along with Yahoo! and other stakeholders, the Global Network Initiative, which protects and advances freedom of expression in the Internet, communications and technology sector.

To learn more about Mike Posner’s work, please see here.

For the full text of Secretary Clinton’s remarks, please see here.

The BHRP joins Secretary Clinton in congratulating Mike Posner. His passion for and commitment to being a tireless advocate for the rights of the most vulnerable are an inspiration.

Introducing Evgeny Morozov, Our Newest Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

I’m thrilled to introduce Evgeny Morozov, our 2009-2010 Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University.

Evgeny is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy and runs the magazine’s influential and widely-quoted “Net Effect” blog about the Internet’s impact on global politics.  Prior to his Yahoo! Fellowship, he was a fellow at George Soros’s Open Society Institute, where he remains on the board of the Information Program (one of the leading and most experimental funders for technology projects that have an impact on open society and human rights). Before moving to the US, Evgeny was based in Berlin and Prague, where he was Director of New Media at Transitions Online, a media development NGO active in 29 countries of the former Soviet bloc. Evgeny’s work has appeared in The Economist, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, Slate, Le Monde, The San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Review, Foreign Policy, Project Syndicate, Dissent and many other publications. He has appeared on CNN, CBS, SkyNews, CBC, Al Jazeera International, France 24, Reuters TV, NPR, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service.

Here is what Evgeny is working on, in his own words:

“The rapid spread of new communications technologies around the globe promised a new age of politics, where citizens would be able to educate themselves about important political issues of the day, form ad-hoc groups about the most important such issues, and use new media to strategically challenge the power of their governments. This was a very appealing narrative, because it also matched the rapid spread of freedom and democracy across the world, particularly in the 1990s.

Looking at some of these early predictions – about the end of nationalism or the demise of the nation state or the global triumph of Web-powered freedom – one easily detects the naiveté that underlined much of our thinking on these issues. As it turns out, conventional (and often brutal) politics still matters, even in the age of easy mobilization dominated by blogs and social networking.

In my own research – including my one year at Georgetown on a Yahoo fellowship – I’m focusing on how governments – especially those that are not particularly famous for their respect for democracy and human rights – have been adapting to the digital threat posed by this new era and minimizing the democratizing effects of these new technologies. Comparing the approaches in China, Russia, much of the Middle East, I came to see that the governments – and groups and networks affiliated with/ and supportive of what they do – have made a remarkable use of the very same technologies that have become favorite tools of the activists and NGOs. Similarly, many of the new public spheres that formed in digital spaces have also been receptive to numerous nationalist and extremist ideas that were not very conducive to deliberative democracy. How do we still promote activities of the “virtual civil societies” without empowering its enemies, who are sometimes even more dangerous than the authoritarian governments themselves? Were we too quick to assume that promoting democracy and freedom – as well as engaging in public diplomacy – would necessarily become easier and quicker in this new digital age?

These are some of the questions that I’m asking in my research and various events at Georgetown and that I’ll be discussing in my upcoming book about the Internet and democracy (to be published by PublicAffairs in late 2010).”

We are looking forward to bringing Evgeny to Yahoo!’s campus early next year to talk about his work. Congratulations, Evgeny!

Using the Internet to Empower Women in Yemen

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Rising Voices | EWAMT Workshop

I love stories about how the Internet and technology are being used as platforms for free expression around the world, so every once in a while, I’ll share them with you. I read a very interesting series of reports in Rising Voices about a really inspirational project.  Rising Voices is an outreach initiative of Global Voices, and their goal is to bring new voices from new communities and speaking new languages to the global conversation.  They do this by providing resources and funding to communities whose points of view are under-represented in global media.

In Yemen, Rising Voices is partnering with the Hand in Hand Initiative and Ghaida’a al-Absi to present  new media training courses for female politicians, activists, and human rights workers to diversify the Arabic-language blogosphere and to build an online network of Yemeni gender activists.

According to Rising Voices’ blogger Rezwan, the most recent workshop was held on October 15th, and participants blogged about a range of topics, from the spread of HIV/AIDS to poetry to the increase in the rate of drug addiction in Yemen.

To learn more about this fascinating project, go to: http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/projects/empowerment-of-women-activists-in-media-techniques-yemen/

For Rezwan’s story about the most recent workshop, including links to the participants’ blogs, go to: http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2009/10/20/ewamt-blogging-and-social-networking-energizes-women-in-yemen/.

Yahoo! at the UN

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Victor Ricco | CEDHA

In October, Yahoo!’s BHRP had the honor of participating in the United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ consultation on business and human rights in Geneva.  The consultation was presented by Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises,  John Ruggie, and chaired by the Ambassadors of Norway and Nigeria. More than 300 representatives from UN member states, human rights organizations, civil society, academia and business attended.

The Special Representative has the monumental task of defining the responsibilities companies should have in protecting human rights around the world. He began by creating a policy framework based on three principles:

1. The State duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business;
2. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and
3. The need for greater access by victims to effective remedies.

The Special Representative will complete his mandate by translating the policy framework into specific actions that companies and nations should take to protect human rights, and the consultation was an opportunity for people and organizations to give their ideas and views about what the final product should include.

To learn more about the policy framework, go to:  http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/trans_corporations/index.htm

I had the privilege of representing Yahoo! on a panel about the second principle, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. I was asked to discuss the dilemmas companies like Yahoo! face when certain aspects of local laws, or their implementation, may conflict with international human rights norms, and to give recommendations on what the Special Representative should consider when developing specific guidelines for companies.

I talked about the power of technology and how access to the Internet is often even more important in countries that restrict free expression. I talked about the difficult choices companies face and how requiring information and technology companies to refrain from offering products and services in countries that restrict free expression can actually punish the citizens in those countries who rely on technology to communicate and connect with the outside world. I also asked the Special Representative to consider how the framework can show support for solutions like the GNI that draw upon the combined wisdom of companies, non-profits, academics, users and others.

To read the full text of my remarks, see here.

I learned a great deal from my co-panelists, including human rights giants like Jody Kollapen (former Chair of the South Africa Human Rights Commission, who represented Stephen Biko and who helped create the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission), Auret van Heerden (President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association and former exile from the apartheid-era South African government) and Salvador Quishpe, who represented the indigenous Saraguro community of Ecuador. I’m honored to have represented Yahoo!, and the BHRP looks forward to learning more about the progress of the Special Representative’s mandate, and to future conversations with these and other stakeholders.

Iran Stories

By Michael Samway | VP & Deputy General Counsel

UPDATE: ZDNet has retracted its story.

Yahoo! is committed to protecting the free expression and privacy rights of our users, so we are concerned by the misleading and incorrect statements in an article posted on ZDNet.com regarding Yahoo! and Iran.

The allegations in the story are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with Iranian officials regarding the matters referenced in the article, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government. The ZDnet article makes other inaccurate assertions. We don’t have a Yahoo! Iran website, as the article suggests. We don’t have employees in Iran either. And while we have a website targeted at users in Malaysia, we don’t have operations or officials there, also wrongly asserted in the article.

The power of the Internet means that information travels quickly, including claims that are false. We’re disappointed in this case that we weren’t given a chance to comment on the allegations before the story went live. We are, however, pleased that ZDnet’s editor has now said the report on which the article was based is considered unreliable. We intend to continue to demonstrate, through our actions, our deep commitment to protecting our users’ rights to free expression and privacy. Yahoo! was founded on the principle that access to information and to communications tools can improve people’s lives, and Yahoo! is committed to protecting and promoting freedom of expression and privacy around the globe, including in Iran.

To learn more about our human rights efforts, please visit our website, at http://humanrights.yahoo.com.

by Michael Samway, VP & Deputy General Counsel

A little more conversation

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

James Emery | Flickr Creative Commons

Hello, and welcome to the Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program blog! For the past few years, Yahoo! has been focused upon how to address the fact that our business increasingly intersects with human rights issues around the world, specifically user privacy and free expression on the Internet. We know that we have a responsibility, like all companies, to act responsibly in the communities in which we operate, and we have taken action, including funding academic fellowships, creating the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund, engaging with governments, and helping to co-found the Global Network Initiative.

You can read more about our initiatives on our website, at humanrights.yahoo.com.

At Yahoo!, we believe that access to information improves lives and advances human rights around the world. We also know that with almost half a billion users around the word, we have an opportunity to raise awareness about free expression and user privacy.  The issues at the intersection of technology and human rights are complex, and we believe that we can only benefit from transparency and an open exchange of ideas with engaged and informed people around the world.

With this blog, we are hoping to start a conversation. Will you join us?

by Ebele Okobi-Harris |  Director, Business & Human Rights Program