Iconic in Egypt
Witnessing the literal influence of Internet icons in Egypt in analog form.
photo credit: @whoisubik and @tomgara
via @whoisubik in Dubai and @tomgara who received this great photo from a friend in Egypt.
What are you seeing on the ground?
Introducing Kee Kim, 2010 BHRP Fall Intern
The BHRP team is excited to have Kee Kim with us as our 2010 Fall Intern. Having worked in both the public and private sectors, Kee brings a unique perspective from his experiences in Central Asia, South Korea, Mexico, and most recently Washington, DC. Please read below to learn about Kee in his own words.
Kee (left) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (July 2010) with neighborhood baker.
I am thrilled to be a part of the Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program this fall. Yahoo! has a fun and open image, and I expect Yahoo!’s culture of respecting others and commitment to protecting and promoting free expression and privacy on the Internet to raise the bar for other industry leaders whose business products overlap with human rights issues.
As a graduate student in Georgetown University’s MBA & MSFS programs, I am also exploring the interactions between international development and the private sector in emerging markets where values like privacy and free expression are put to the test every day. Most recently I spent the summer working with the U.S. Department of State in Uzbekistan where freedoms of expression and assembly are still severely limited, yet social media tools are gaining traction among the young people to create a platform for discourse. The opportunity to provide hope in these environments by integrating human rights issues into business decisions is truly exciting.
As an immigrant to the U.S., I was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in California where I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. My love for international travel coincided with an opportunity to work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central Asia, teaching in the classroom, training English teachers, and partnering with local NGOs in developing afterschool youth programs. Ever since then, I have been fortunate to study and find work that reflects my idealism in wanting to solve our world’s problems. The unique intersection between technology and human rights will continue to affect how business and regulatory policy coexist worldwide, and I look forward to learning and contributing to the Yahoo! Business and Human Rights Program.
Yahoo! in Paris
Flickr Creative Commons | Ron Reiring
The Business & Human Rights Program was pleased that BHRP virtual team member, Abigail Harris-Deans participated in The Consultation with business on the Implementation of the UN ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework, held in Paris on October 5; here’s her account of the event:
It was a gray day weather-wise in Paris, but this was more than compensated for by the lively atmosphere at the MEDEF. UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative Professor John Ruggie’s 43rd Consultation on the Implementation of the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework was comprised of three sessions focusing on each of the 3 pillars:
With representatives from over 100 companies participating and representing a diverse range of industries, there was no shortage of thought provoking questions and interesting contributions during the day.
Although a number of varied concerns were voiced, as might be expected with participants approaching the problems and issues from different perspectives, there was clearly a lot of common ground open for debate. Many participants expressed a desire for the Framework’s Guiding Principles to include some practical guidance on approaches that can be taken when national laws are incompatible with internationally recognised human rights. There was an appeal for clarity on the division of the roles and responsibilities between States and companies. It was noted that in some instances companies are inadvertently supplanting the State’s role, for example by undertaking audits of companies which have never seen a national labour inspector. In so doing, the company is adopting a role which would normally fall to the State and it was suggested that this is the wrong approach.
There was some debate about the ability of small companies to meet the expectations of the Guiding Principles. Further discussion inferred that those expectations are that companies adopt reasonable measures in accordance with the scale of each company’s respective potential impact on human rights. It was contended that even small enterprises can take some level of precaution against the contravention of internationally recognised human rights by conducting due diligence exercises, and it is clearly better to make informed judgments to increase a company’s confidence in relation to their actions and responsibilities.
I contributed to the discussion on the due diligence processes by speaking about the “Human Rights Impact Assessments” carried out by Yahoo! and how we have found these particularly useful when considering entering a new market or launching a new product. By considering and reviewing risk based scenarios, companies are able to develop strategies for mitigating potential risks.
The closing remarks from Total’s CEO, Christophe de Margerie, demonstrated the level of support that many companies have for the implementation of the Framework. It was a privilege to contribute at this consultation and to have represented Yahoo!, and we look forward to reading the draft Guiding Principles to be published in November.
To share your views, please comment below, or join the debate on the Special Representative’s forum, at http://www.srsgconsultation.org.
Introducing Karelia Vasquez, the 2011 Yahoo! International Fellow at Stanford
Karelia Vázquez, who will be the 2010-11 Yahoo! International Fellow at Stanford this year, wants to use 21st century social networking tools to bring people together, even in countries where freedom of expression is severely limited.
Vázquez was born and raised in Cuba, and spent the early part of her journalism career in that country before moving to Spain, where she could report and write with greater freedom. She is going to spend her year at Stanford creating a “cyber-ecosystem” to connect debating forums inside and outside Cuba.
The Yahoo! International Fellowship at Stanford was specifically established for people like Vázquez, journalists from countries where there are strong challenges to a free press. Yahoo! and the Knight Fellowships agreed that supporting journalists who were directly or indirectly under attack should be at the top of the to-do list, and so we created the Yahoo! Fellowship in 2006, with a generous gift from Yahoo!.
Vázquez is the fifth Yahoo! Fellow, following Imtiaz Ali, from Pakistan, Violet Gonda, of Zimbabwe, Abebe Gellaw, from Ethiopia, and Nadia Trinidad, from the Philippines. Like Gellaw and Gonda, Vázquez needed to leave her home country in order to be a more effective journalist. Since 1999 she has been based in Madrid, where she has written for Diario El Pais, Spain’s leading newspaper, Marie Claire Spain, and was a founding member of www.cubaencuentro.com, the digital version of Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana Magazine.
As Vázquez arrives, we bid farewell to Nadia Trinidad, of the Philippines, the 2009-10 Yahoo! Fellow. Nadia is a senior correspondent for ABS-CBN Broadcasting Company in Manila. She studied the psychological and sociological aspects of corruption in the media.
Journalists are under attack around the world, and organizations like the Committee To Protect Journalists make sure that those attacks are brought to light. It makes me feel proud that the Knight Fellowships and Yahoo! have teamed up to provide a fellowship at Stanford every year for someone who is bearing the brunt of those attacks.
Links:
By Jim Bettinger | Director, John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists | Stanford University
Africa’s future belongs to young Africans
The Business & Human Rights Program was pleased that BHRP virtual team member, Abbas Gassem, was invited to participate in The President’s Forum with Young African Leaders; read on for his account of the event.
—
In early August, I was invited to participate in The President’s Forum with Young Africans Leaders held in Washington, D.C. President Obama held a town hall meeting with forum delegates, while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton personally gave a welcome address. The two and a half day summit included sessions on access to capital, freedom of expression through new technologies, youth involvement in democracy and governance, and advocacy.
This year is a monumental time for Africa with 17 countries celebrating 50 years of independence. And the democracy bug is fitfully catching on. By the end of this year, a score of sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries will have gone to the polls for an assortment of local, regional, and national elections. This is a big year for African voters.
Africa is at a major junction, with colonialism and the fight for independence truly behind it. Yet Africa faces many challenges over the next 50 years. These challenges are no small feat with poor governance, lack of opportunities for good education, and corruption holding back the rise of Africa. Despite all this, Africa is a continent full of potential. With sixty percent of the African population under the age of 25 and the growth of technology, it is time to break down old barriers. The FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa was a success and provides a platform of extraordinary promise for the future. The winds of change are blowing in Africa, driven from within rather than from the outside. There is an aspiration for better governance, change from old tribal based society to one where ideas win over loyalty, and to be part of global economy that will all bring rapid and foreseen changes in Africa.
During the summit, I met fellow Africans who are eager for this change and who want to take charge of their own destiny. America has the opportunity to support these aspirations and empower the African youth by supporting education, getting grassroots networks of young people connected, and helping spread technology to remote areas that have little opportunity for their voices to be heard.
I also had the pleasure to facilitate a session on freedom of expression through new technologies. It is impressive to see how young people are using mobile technology and social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to share their thoughts. Technology will be a platform to deliver this change which should not be led by foreign governments or international institutions but rather by the people and for the people. The more Africans who can bypass the gate keepers with technology, the sooner these aspirations will be realised.
An example of this is the Ushahidi crisis management platform, built by young Kenyans to map reports of violence after the election of 2007, and currently being used as a digital tool for social change across the world. Another example is the telecommunications firm Safaricom’s highly successful mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa. Mpesa (”money” in Swahili) is a mobile transfer solution that allows money transfers to be done by mobile customers who do not have a bank account. The service has facilitated over $4B in transactions in Kenya since its launch in late 2007 – and that’s in a country with adjusted annual per-capita income of under $1,700.
Despite all one hears about Africa with the corruption, famine and fighting, the future looks promising. If you would like to connect with the Young African Leaders Forum, here is their Facebook group.
Abbas Gassem is a Senior Product Manager at Yahoo! Europe and the founder of InsideSomalia.
For more information on the Young African Leaders Forum, visit their website:
Yahoo! Declared Not Liable for Defamation in Argentina
Flickr Creative Commons | Steakpinball
On August 13, 2010, an Argentine Appellate Court overturned a 2008 ruling of a lower court that had found Yahoo! de Argentina SRL and Google Argentina liable for defamation in the case of an Argentine entertainer, Virginia Da Cunha. Da Cunha is one of several Argentine celebrities who have been seeking money damages in relation to the companies’ alleged failure to block all third-party owned and controlled sexually-oriented Web sites that contain their name or images.
In issuing the 2-1 decision in favor of the companies, the Appellate Court concluded that the companies could be held liable for damages based on a defamation claim only if they were made aware of clearly illegal content and were negligent in removing it. The Appellate Court stated:
“…this Court finds no liability can be held against Defendants (search engines) for injurious search results that appeared on the Internet before Defendants have received notice requesting the exclusion of said search results. The mere possibility that a (defendant) search engine produces search results from third party sites that yield offensive and scandalous information about an individual, which may cause injury or damage to that person’s image or reputation, does not by itself mean that said individual has a right to seek damages directly against the search engines.”
In response to the ruling, Bill Carvalho, Yahoo’s Regional General Counsel for Americas, issued the following statement:
“Yahoo! is happy with and encouraged by the Da Cunha ruling; we believe this will set precedence for similar pending cases in Argentina. Rulings in these cases and the preliminary orders associated with them seem to reflect the Argentine courts trying to develop their understanding of an issue created by the modern development of search engines. As they come to more fully understand the Internet and the roles of the various parties involved in these cases – from the search engines to the parties actually publishing the content objected to – we are confident that the courts will conclude that we neither control nor manage the content published by third parties and should not be held responsible or liable for their editorial choices on their own websites.
Yahoo! will continue to defend the important principles behind our position and pursuing these matters within the Argentine legal system. We believe a positive outcome for Yahoo! Argentina on the principles we are defending will also benefit Internet users throughout Argentina.
The ruling affected Yahoo!’s search engine in Argentina only and not the U.S. sites. The Argentine Appellate Court alluded to the importance and accessibility of information in a free and democratic society and that the Internet is but one important tool for Argentine society to be informed of different and diverse ideas. The Appellate Court concluded by stating:
“Argentine Civil Law #26.032/05 has established that the search, receipt and exchange of diverse ideas from an Internet service, falls clearly within the constitutional guaranty of the freedom of expression”.
By Ernesto Luciano |General Counsel |Yahoo! Hispanic Americas
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on the Colbert Report
Well, it’s the Col-BEAR Re-PORH, and not “Meet the Press”, but the self-proclaimed defender of truthiness did sneak in incisive questions about the US commitment to human rights (including Internet freedom) in the US and abroad and about some of the inherent conflicts when different human rights appear to collide.
Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner on the Colbert Report
A Win for Yahoo! and for Privacy in Belgium
Flickr Creative Commons | Steakpinball
Yahoo! welcomes the decision last week by the Court of Appeal in Belgium, which highlights the importance of local law enforcement authorities following established international protocols when conducting their investigations.
In March 2009, a Belgian Criminal Court entered judgment in a criminal case against Yahoo! Inc. for the failure to disclose user data to Belgian law enforcement authorities. Yahoo! does not have a local subsidiary or a website in Belgium. More importantly, the Belgian authorities did not follow the recognised legal process when it sought to obtain the user data from Yahoo! Inc., located in the U.S.. An official diplomatic channel exists between the U.S. and Belgium to facilitate appropriate information exchange (set up under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty), but this route was not taken by the Belgian authorities despite our encouragement to do so.
On 30 June 2010, the Belgian Court of Appeal overturned the March 2009 judgment. The Court of Appeal found there was insufficient jurisdiction to bring Yahoo! Inc.’s actions under Belgian telecommunications laws, and Yahoo! Inc. was acquitted of all charges and fines against it.
This judgment is a win for both the privacy of our users and also for common sense in international law enforcement: the global nature of the internet does not subject companies offering services online – and their customers’ data – to the jurisdiction of every country globally. We hope this judgment can send a signal to law enforcement authorities to use established legal process in their investigations; following such procedures is the best way to ensure that information gathering for law enforcement is conducted effectively and efficiently, whilst safeguarding data privacy and freedom of expression over the Internet.
By Jen Swallow | Legal Director, Product Compliance EMEA | Albert Yung | Legal Intern | Yahoo! UK
Introducing Tsering Dhongthog, 2010 BHRP Summer Intern!
The BHRP is thrilled to have Tsering Dhongthog with us this summer as our 2010 summer intern. Tsering is passionate about human rights, has lived in India, Tibet and China, and has worked for a range of organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Tibet Justice Center. Please see below, to learn more about Tsering in her own words.
My name is Tsering Dhongthog and I am joining the Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program as a summer intern. Although I am a native of the Pacific Northwest, I attended a refugee boarding school in India and have always been deeply interested in human rights issues. While a college student at the University of Washington, I had the chance to spend my summers working with human rights organizations like the Tibet Justice Center, Human Rights Watch, and the International Rescue Committee. In 2006, after graduating college, I moved to Beijing and interned for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) where I worked with refugees fleeing violence in their home countries.
After nearly a year in China, I returned to the U.S. to pursue a master’s degree in China Studies at Columbia University. Through my courses and interactions with professors and visiting scholars, I became increasingly interested in the impact new social media and the internet in general has on civil society in China, especially in politically sensitive Tibet. The 2008 March protests across the Tibetan plateau was widely publicized in the international community, thanks in large part to social media sites that quickly generated first-hand accounts, photos, and videos of the turbulent scene. This demonstrated for me the growing role that the internet plays in social movements not only in China but all around the world.
I am currently a second-year law student at the University of Michigan. Last summer I interned in Washington D.C. for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) where I researched and wrote on issues like freedom of expression and rule of law. At law school I have taken courses such as Mass Media, International Investment Law, and Foreign Corporate Governance. I have also written papers on these areas of law including Google’s China censorship issue, and on the growing trend of companies incorporating human rights into their corporate governance charters, using Starwood Hotels and Resorts as a case study. So when I learned about the legal internship with the Business & Human Rights Program at Yahoo! I was excited to find an opportunity that combines my interest in human rights and corporate law. I just hope I can contribute as much as I know I will absorb from this amazing opportunity!
Amnesty International Campaign
Yahoo! has become aware of a campaign launched by Amnesty International, calling on Yahoo! for the release of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning. We are deeply concerned about their continued imprisonment and have and will continue to use those diplomatic forums available to us to advocate for the release of dissidents imprisoned for sharing their views on-line.
At Yahoo!, we strongly believe that the complex global issues of privacy and free expression are best addressed with a collective approach, which is why we are co-founding members of the Global Network Initiative (GNI). As such, we welcome engagement and constructive solutions from all of our stakeholders, including NGOs such as Amnesty.
Transparency is also important, so we would like to make sure that our users are aware of our efforts and have the opportunity to communicate with us directly. We are reaching out to Amnesty directly (as we have done in the past) and are sending letters to those users who took the time to write us and share their concerns. In the interest of transparency, we are also sharing our response to Amnesty with you. Please see below for our letter, with details of the steps that we have taken. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments, or via e-mail. We look forward to the dialogue, and to continuing to work with all of our stakeholders to protect and promote privacy and free expression in the ICT sector.
***
Dr. Morton Winston
Address Redacted
Dear Dr. Winston;
Thank you for your interest in learning more about Yahoo!’s commitment to human rights around the world.
Yahoo! was founded on the principle that promoting access to information can improve people’s lives and enhance their relationship with the world around them. The continued imprisonment of Shi Tao is of great concern, particularly given our deep commitment to human rights and desire to be a leader among technology companies in this area.
Yahoo! continues to actively push for the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xioaning and other Chinese dissidents. We have asked the U.S. government to use its leverage to create a global environment where Internet freedom is a priority and where people are no longer imprisoned for expressing their views online. Our former CEO Jerry Yang has met personally with senior State Department officials, and in 2008 wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging the State Department to redouble its efforts to secure the release of imprisoned Chinese dissidents. Secretary Rice subsequently raised this issue with senior Chinese officials, and since then we have seen Members of Congress echo this call for U.S. diplomatic leadership. We also wrote a letter in December of 2009 to U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and spoke with Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner in May of 2010, urging the State Department to continue to advocate for the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xioaning and other Chinese dissidents. We hope these continuing efforts will both intensify and bear fruit.
Yahoo! has not owned or had operational control over Yahoo! China since 2005. However, through our minority stake as well as our membership on the board of Alibaba (which owns and operates Yahoo! China) we have been able to successfully encourage some concrete changes so that Chinese citizens can have a greater understanding of the risks and benefits of going online in China. For example, Yahoo! China search pages contain a notice announcing that certain search results may be limited as a result of Chinese law and the Yahoo! China Mail registration page notes to users that the service is subject to Chinese law.
Yahoo! is committed to protecting human rights and freedom of expression around the world, including in China. As a result, we have partnered with noted dissident and human rights activist Harry Wu and the Laogai Research Foundation to establish the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund. This fund provides humanitarian and legal support to political dissidents who have been imprisoned for expressing their views online, as well as assistance for their families. We also provide financial, humanitarian and legal support to the families of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning.
As you are aware, in order to incorporate lessons learned into future business practices, we created Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program in 2008 (http://ycorpblog.com/2008/05/07/business-and-human-rights/). This first of its kind initiative represents a fundamental corporate commitment to human rights. Among other concrete actions, the BHRP conducts a formal assessment of the potential human rights impact of business decisions. Yahoo! then designs and implements mitigation strategies that limit potential risks to free expression and privacy. To further raise awareness about these critical issues and to contribute to the development of concrete solutions, Yahoo! has established international fellowships at Stanford University and Georgetown University to advance the work of journalists and scholars exploring the complex issues at the intersection of technology, free expression, privacy and global values. In 2009, we also launched the Business & Human Rights Summit, an annual stakeholder engagement and shared learning event. You can learn more about Yahoo!’s individual and collective efforts at Yahoo! at http://humanrights.yahoo.com.
At Yahoo!, we believe that the cause of human rights is more effectively advanced through collective action. As a result, Yahoo! is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder group of companies, civil society organizations (including human rights and press freedom groups), investors and academics committed to protecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy online. As you know, given Amnesty’s earlier role in the GNI, GNI formally launched in November of 2008. Since then, Yahoo!, along with fellow participating companies, has agreed to incorporate GNI’s Implementation Guidelines and Governance, Accountability and Learning Framework into our business operations. The Implementation Guidelines and Accountability Framework hold us accountable to our commitments through a number of concrete mechanisms, including independent third-party assessments. You can learn more about the GNI, including details about governance and accountability mechanisms, at http://globalnetworkinitiative.org.
At Yahoo! we will continue to explore how to do more to protect freedom of expression in the markets where we operate. As you know, an important component of the GNI process and of Yahoo!’s approach to these issues is continuous engagement with stakeholders, including NGOs like Amnesty International. We encourage Amnesty to join us in the GNI as we create concrete solutions to the privacy and free expression challenges in the ICT sector; we would welcome the opportunity to have a constructive dialogue.
I appreciate your interest in this important issue, and invite you to contact me directly with your recommendations, and to learn more about Yahoo!’s actions and GNI’s progress.
Respectfully,
Ebele Okobi-Harris
Director, Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program
Open Net Initiative
- Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace December 19, 2011Description from MIT Press: A daily battle for rights and freedoms in cyberspace is being waged in Asia. At the epicenter of this contest is China--home to the world's largest Internet population and what is perhaps the world's most advanced Internet censorship and surveillance regime in cyberspace. Resistance to China's Internet controls come […]rheacock
- All three of the @OpenNet Initiative books can now be found, free and open access, on a single site (via @jpalfrey) December 19, 2011[…]ashar
- Better Data for a Better Internet December 2, 2011The Berkman Center enthusiastically shares an article from Faculty Co-Directors John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain on "Better Data for a Better Internet," published in this month's edition of Science. The piece explores how current debates and discussions about Internet policy can be more effectively informed by better data and research method […]ashar
- Berkman Buzz: November 4, 2011 November 4, 2011A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below. * Wendy Seltzer reports on last week's ICANN public meeting […]rheacock
- Berkman Buzz: August 12, 2011 August 12, 2011A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations If you would like to receive the Buzz weekly via email, please sign up here. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * What's being discussed...take your pick or browse below. * Dan Gillmor cautions against social media surveillance * The Op […]rheacock
The Global Network Initiative 
Academic Fellowships 
Yahoo! BHRP 
Impact Assessments 
BHRP Summit 
Human Rights Fund 
