Rebecca MacKinnon explains China’s Internet White Paper

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Flickr Creative Commons | Tomislavmedak

Here’s an illuminating post from RConversation, Rebecca MacKinnon’s blog on China’s recently released “White Paper on the Internet in China“.

China’s Internet White Paper: networked authoritarianism in action

The release of the Chinese government’s first-ever White Paper on the Internet in China provoked some head-scratching here in the Western world. Part Three of the six-part document is titled “Guaranteeing Citizens’ Freedom of Speech on the Internet.” I’ve heard from several journalists and policy analysts (not people based in China, for whom such cognitive dissonance is normal) who at first glance thought they were reading The Onion or some kind of parody site. How, people asked me, can a government that so blatantly censors the Internet claim with a straight face to be protecting and upholding freedom of speech on the Internet? The answer of course is that China’s netizens are free to do everything… except for the things they’re not free to do.  The list of the latter, outlined in the next section titled Protecting Internet Security is long, vague, and subject to considerable interpretation:

…The Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safe flow of Internet information, actively guides people to manage websites in accordance with the law and use the Internet in a wholesome and correct way. The Decision of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee on Guarding Internet Security, Regulations on Telecommunications of the People’s Republic of China and Measures on the Administration of Internet Information Services stipulate that no organization or individual may produce, duplicate, announce or disseminate information having the following contents: being against the cardinal principles set forth in the Constitution; endangering state security, divulging state secrets, subverting state power and jeopardizing national unification; damaging state honor and interests; instigating ethnic hatred or discrimination and jeopardizing ethnic unity; jeopardizing state religious policy, propagating heretical or superstitious ideas; spreading rumors, disrupting social order and stability; disseminating obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, brutality and terror or abetting crime; humiliating or slandering others, trespassing on the lawful rights and interests of others; and other contents forbidden by laws and administrative regulations.

Other than that, people are totally free. What’s more, the use of the Internet by the people to “supervise” public officials is praised. As long as – in the process of said supervision – state power is not subverted, “state honor” is not jeopardized, nobody is humiliated or slandered, and no “rumors” are spread. The rise of Twitter-like microblogging services is even praised. (Twitter itself is blocked by the “great firewall,” though tens of thousands of Chinese Internet users are believed to access it anyway through third-party clients and circumvention tools).

As I’ve frequently pointed out in the past (see here, here and here for starters), blocking of foreign websites like Twitter is just the top layer of Chinese Internet censorship. Beneath the “great firewall of China” is a sophisticated system by which censorship is delegated to the private sector. The first company to set up a Chinese Twitter-clone was a startup called Fanfou. Last June they got shut down because they failed to police the service adequately: users apparently shared too much content that violated the above no-no list. Other micro-blog services have since emerged. One run by the People’s Daily and another by the popular web portal Sina.com. They seem to have learned from Fanfou’s troubles and have put aggressive censorship systems in place. As Chen Tong, Sina’s head editor, recently commented at a 3G Wireless Industry Summit: “controlling content in Sina microblogs is a problem which is a very big headache.” (The Shanghaiist blog reports that the Sina.com news article reporting Chen’s comments has itself been censored, but not before getting quoted and reported around the Internet.) According to the Sina.com account of his remarks, Chen went on to describe Sina’s microblog-censorship strategy in some detail: 24-7 policing; constant coordination between the editorial department and the “monitoring department” (all social networking companies in China must have one of those in order to stay in compliance with government expectations);  daily meetings; and systems through which both editors and users are constantly reporting problematic content.

Even so, Chen Tong says in his speech that microblogging has been tremendously empowering in China. He says that micro-blogs have become “people’s personal web portals” and that a lot of recent incidents that have generated widespread public concern first emerged on microblogs.

Despite all the policing and the round-the-clock censorship, Chinese Internet users still feel much more empowered to participate in public discourse and even bring issues to national attention than they ever could have imagined in the past. (See Guobin Yang’s excellent book, The Power of the Internet in China for many examples.) As I described it to one journalist, it’s as if a bird that has lived in a cage all its life (one which has been gradually upgraded, with steadily improving food and which is much cleaner than it used to be) suddenly gets released into a large atrium. The bird is likely to feel excited and empowered for quite some time and may not realize that even broader freedom is possible or even desirable: after all, without the atrium walls might she get lost and starve? Or get eaten by other birds? There are plenty of security arguments in favor of supporting the atrium’s legitimacy and necessity; there are even ethical justifications.

Thus China is pioneering what I call “networked authoritarianism.” Compared to classic authoritarianism, networked authoritarianism permits – or shall we say accepts the Internet’s inevitable consequences and adjusts – a lot more give-and-take between government and citizens than in a pre-Internet authoritarian state. While one party remains in control, a wide range of conversations about the country’s problems rage on websites and social networking services. The government follows online chatter, and sometimes people are even able to use the Internet to call attention to social problems or injustices, and even manage to have an impact on government policies. As a result, the average person with Internet or mobile access has a much greater sense of freedom – and may even feel like they have the ability to speak and be heard – in ways that weren’t possible under classic authoritarianism. It also makes most people a lot less likely to join a movement calling for radical political change. In many ways, the regime actually uses the Internet not only to extend its control but also to enhance its legitimacy.

At the same time, in the networked authoritarian state there is no guarantee of individual rights and freedoms. People go to jail when the powers-that-be decide they are too much of a threat – and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. Truly competitive, free and fair elections do not happen. The courts and the legal system are tools of the ruling party.

Connecting every citizen in China to the Internet via multiple devices might sound like something the Chinese Communist Party would want to avoid. Several people who contacted me about China’s Internet White Paper were surprised at the Chinese government’s enthusiasm for connectivity. Such enthusiasm does not jive with most American and European notions of how an authoritarian state would be run by a party that calls itself Communist. What’s important to understand is that Chinese authoritarianism in the Internet age is not the same as the crumbling, centrally-planned authoritarianism of the Eastern Bloc, disconnected from the Western capitalist world.

The CCP leadership recognizes that they can’t control everybody all the time if they’re going to be a technologically advanced global economic powerhouse. What’s more, high Internet penetration is necessary if the Chinese government wants to continue high rates of economic growth, which economists agree requires boosting domestic consumer demand as well as pushing Chinese companies to the cutting edge of technological innovation.  China catapulted itself to become the world’s second largest economy by turning itself into the world’s factory. But Chinese labor has grown expensive compared to some other markets in poorer countries. In order to stay competitive and keep growing, China needs to transition from a manufacturing-fueled economy to an economy fueled by domestic consumption at home, while being an innovator for advanced technologies and services that can compete with American and European companies.

Another component of the Chinese Communist Party’s survival strategy involves influencing the Internet’s technical evolution in ways that are most compatible with censorship and surveillance goals. China already has more Internet users than there are Americans on the planet. As the world’s biggest market for Internet technologies, it is starting to influence how these technologies evolve. The Internet is quickly morphing from something we’ve mainly used through our computers into a new, more mobile phase in which all devices, appliances and vehicles – from our phones to our cars to our refrigerators – will be connected to the network. The Chinese government is embracing this future. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao now gives speeches in which he waxes enthusiastic about the “Internet of things.” Chinese Internet and telecommunications companies receive substantial government support in hopes that they will lead the world in shaping the next generation of Internet technologies.

Beyond China, the fastest-growing markets for mobile Internet technologies are in Asia, the Middle East and Africa: exactly those parts of the world where authoritarian governments are most concentrated. Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei and ZTE (the “Ciscos of China”) are already dominant in many African and Middle Eastern markets. They are building Internet and mobile networks in countries whose governments would prefer to have their systems built by Chinese engineers rather than by Americans.

Another thing that has puzzled some of the American journalists and analysts who contacted me is the Chinese government’s assertion of its “sovereignty” on the Internet, given that the Internet is a globally inter-connected network and derives much of its value from the fact that borders are collapsed online. Yet at the same time, it’s a physical reality that web sites have to be hosted physically on computers that are located in some jurisdiction or another; they are operated by physical human beings who reside under a government jurisdiction and can thus be physically controlled when necessary; they are operated by businesses that have to be registered in one or more jurisdiction and their physical operations are subject to government regulation; and the Internet runs on networks that physically exist within or pass through nation-states. The White Paper is a clear articulation of the Chinese government’s long-standing position that nation-states should have “sovereignty” over all aspects of the Internet – human or equipment or signal – that reside within or pass through Chinese sovereign territory. Google is challenging this notion as it pushes the U.S. government to take action against China for violating WTO rules by using censorship as a barrier to trade. (For further discussion of China and Internet sovereignty see this Interview with Columbia University’s Tim Wu conducted by The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos.)

The White Paper also re-emphasizes the Chinese government’s long-standing position that the global coordination tasks required to make the Internet function – what Internet policy wonks call “Internet governance” – are best left to governments, not private entities or companies or others.  The White Paper did not condemn ICANN, the private non-profit which coordinates the Internet’s domain name system – in fact it didn’t even mention ICANN or other non-governmental organizations that coordinate the Internet’s functions and anoint preferred global technical standards. Nor did it say anything negative about the “multi-stakeholder” governance approach currently favored by Western democracies, which includes non-governmental “civil society” organizations alongside governments and companies. But the document made clear China’s position that ” the UN should be given full scope in international Internet administration.” As Brendan Kuerbis of the Internet Governance Project puts it, China is not intending to disengage from the existing Internet governance frameworks, but can be expected to exert its influence in shaping these frameworks in its preferred direction.

The White Paper’s message is that the Chinese government is not running scared from the Internet. It is embracing the Internet head-on, intends to be a leader in its global evolution, and intends to assert its influence on how the global Internet is governed and regulated.

Note that China is not the only country seeking to assert its brand of Internet sovereignty. For an analysis of what’s happening in Russia, read this chilling overview by Gregory Aslomov at Global Voices. For more on the Russia situation as well as an alarming global overview, be sure to read “Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace” just published by the Open Net Initiative.

On a more optimistic note, the White Paper does have its domestic critics. Blogger, journalist and journalism professor Hu Yong argues (writing on a domestic blog which has not been censored) that most of the regulations governing the Chinese Internet have no clear basis in Chinese law and are arguably unconstitutional. “At a time when the Internet is raising a lot of questions that we don’t have answers to,” he writes, “the government may not have the best solutions. It’s possible that the Internet could give birth to new forms of regulation that aren’t as coercive, and which place greater trust in the strength of individual freedom and the self-governance of citizens.” While the Internet does need to be regulated, he concludes, the public needs to participate in the creation of those regulations.

But as long as all of China’s Internet companies and the few foreign Internet companies with a local presence in China continue to do whatever the government demands, no matter how little legal or constitutional legitimacy such demands might have, the government will have little incentive to accept the kind of change that Hu Yong envisions. Note that many of the big Chinese companies receive American investment dollars or are publicly traded on U.S. stock exchanges, sending a clear message that whatever U.S. elected officials might say about “Internet freedom,” many American investors are quite happy to profit from China’s status quo.

–

Rebecca MacKinnon

Visiting Fellow, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University

Co-founder, GlobalVoicesOnline.org

Cell: +1-617-939-3493

E-mail: rebecca.mackinnon@gmail.com

Blog: http://RConversation.blogs.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/rmack

Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/rebeccamack

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Privacy and Free Speech: It’s Good for Business!

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

On Tuesday, June 15, I participated in a panel discussion at the 2010 Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference. The panel was moderated by the ACLU of Northern California, and based upon a primer for business that they produced in 2009 entitled (naturally) “Privacy and Free Speech: It’s Good for Business“. Panelists included perspectives from legal advisors to companies, venture capitalists, and companies. We discussed specific case studies and why it makes good business sense to incorporate privacy and free speech considerations when making business decisions, creating/launching new products and, for new companies, during the start-up phase.

For video of the event, see here.

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A New Tool for Censorship

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

I spent Friday, June 11 at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where they hosted a roundtable discussion/workshop on denial of service attacks/distributed denial of service attacks (DoS/DDoS attacks).

It was a fascinating discussion about some of the methods that certain governments and other groups are using to suppress free expression around the world. Rather than (or in addition to) standard methods such as filtering/blocking websites, the sites are crippled, sometimes permanently, by coordinated external attacks, such as overwhelming the site with enormous quantities of communications requests. The discussion was informed by a diverse multi-stakeholder group. Participants included human rights activists and independent news platforms such as Irawaddy from Burma, The Caucasian Knot from Eastern Europe and Boxun News from China, as well as organizations that help to protect against DDos attacks such as Team Cymru.

For a description of Irawaddy’s experience with a DDoS attack, see this article from the Wall Street Journal.

The Berkman Center is building a map of DDoS attacks and is leading an effort to develop a set of response strategies that can be used by human rights and independent media sites that find themselves under attack, and Friday’s discussion will help to inform their final results. It was a fantastic learning opportunity, as well as a chance to find ways that Yahoo! and the BHRP can continue to address this issue on behalf of our users.

To learn more about this effort, contact the Berkman Center.

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Moving On

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Today, Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program is taking a break from regularly scheduled programming to say farewell to Michael Samway, Yahoo!’s vice president & deputy general counsel, head of Yahoo!’s international legal team and founder of the Business & Human Rights Program. Michael’s dedication, commitment to human rights, and tenacity created and launched the first of its kind Business & Human Rights Program here at Yahoo!. After over a decade of leading with integrity and passion at Yahoo!, Michael is leaving Yahoo!  to set sail.  And that’s not just a metaphor—Michael and his family are actually going to sea – living aboard their boat, teaching their kids and remaining active in the social and human rights causes to which they have dedicated much of their time.

We are thrilled for Michael and his wonderful family, and are so very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him and learn from him.  We must admit, however, to being very sad to see him go. Michael has been a mentor, a friend, an inspiration, a voice of reason and a cat-herder par excellence. He also has, it must be acknowledged, truly spectacular hair.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him will miss Michael very much, and below are some thoughts and stories from a few people, both inside and outside Yahoo!, who wish Michael and his family all the very best in their new adventure.

BB King, I’m Moving On

Harry Wu | Founder and Executive Director, Laogai Research Foundation

Dear Captain Ahab:

I wish you will be great at your new job. When you catch the whale please inform me right away. It is very important to celebrate. But, be careful, safety is number one.

Bob Boorstin | Director, Public Policy, Google Inc.

Good bye to Michael, we’ll miss you so much

Especially your calm and deft lawyerly touch

Again and again you’ve earned your laurels

And proved you’re no pygmy without morals

When the fate of our global initiative lay on a roll of the dice

You swooped in and took command like Crockett from Miami Vice

When push came to shove, you stood up for what was right

And never let the goal out of your keen sight

And now your wisdom is clear through all the commotion

As you take your family out into the ocean

Far away from the rigors of business and the hassles it begot

No new cases for you, just loved ones and that big ol’ yacht

Sail well, our friend, may your direction be true

And remember — big hint — land is brown and sea is blue

Have fun, enjoy the breeze and lay back in the sun

We’ll read your blog, see you soon and envy all your fun

Nicole Kempton | Washington Director, Laogai Research Foundation

Michael Samway has literally transformed the fortunes of our organization, and made the work we do possible.  The Laogai Museum would not exist without him, but more importantly, the Yahoo Human Rights Fund would not have been able to help so many individuals in China without his dedication and hard work.  Although we’re jealous of what promises to be the adventure of his life, he will be greatly missed!

Dunstan Hope | Managing Director, ICT Practice, Advisory Services, Business for Social Responsibility

Michael has been an incredible inspiration to all of us involved in the Global Network Initiative. I remember Michael making an instant impression in our first exploratory meetings in early 2006. Michael’s commitment to protecting human rights and understanding how human rights risks and opportunities arise in the internet age shone through instantly and has been with us ever since. Michael’s calm but committed approach will be missed.

Ena Harris | Director, Education for Change

My wish for you is:

“An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth.”

― Bonnie Friedman

Enjoy life and love and family, Michael!

Chris Samway | Corporate Strategy & Business Development, Gap Inc.

My brother Michael has always been my moral compass, an inspirational role model in work and life, and a true friend and mentor. He can also play just about any Jack Johnson song you can think of on his guitar- which is cool. Yahoo!’s been lucky to have him.

Colin Maclay | Managing Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

I have had the great pleasure of interacting with Michael over the past four years in always unknown and often unfriendly territory. Throughout the ups and downs, he has been the consummate team player – deeply thoughtful and strategic in dealing with all manner of challenges; unfailingly (and ridiculously) modest when it comes to his substantial and diverse contributions; actively supportive of the personal and professional well-being of his colleagues both inside Yahoo! and elsewhere; and not only committed to the enterprise and willing to do everything he can to advance it. He has given a master class in both leadership and friendship to those around him. These skills will no doubt serve him well on the high seas, although I am certain that he will return both humbled and more able than ever – especially in otherwise arcane arts such as navigation, blues guitar, and relaxing.

Fair winds and following seas!

Richard Harris III | Director, Breakthrough Collaborative

Michael is a great dude. Besides being one of the few people in the world who went to Duke that I actually like, Michael has so many of the aspirational qualities that a great man should have: a sharp intellect, a great sense of humor, a beautiful family, the ability to make people feel at ease in eleven languages, fluency with a musical instrument, the right amount of gravitas to command the high seas but still look cool on a bicycle, sharp collars without the use of stays, and a broad and deep enough sports knowledge to “just have a beer” with anyone.

He is one of those rare people you meet who is really interested in your story about your garden, your trip, or how you were trying to get in the building to meet your wife that time. No matter who he’s with – lawyers, blues musicians, Igbo people, or the Faz wait staff, every group of people feels like he is “one of them”. He’s someone who can both listen and talk the right amount of time, so that you feel heard but feel like you learned a lot.

And above all, he’s a genuinely nice guy.

I look forward to getting to know you and your family better, and to our friendship growing after the boat returns. But for now, here’s to exciting travels!

Ferial Ara Saeed | Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University

Best wishes to a class act — Michael’s intelligent approach and sophistication will be sorely missed.

Jaleh Samway Bast

Miguel, you model hard work, motivation, commitment, and dedication.  You embody loyalty, kindness, brilliance, compassion, and integrity.  You were fortunate to have experienced yahoo! and yahoo! was fortunate to have experienced you.  Enjoy safe travels as you live this next adventure in your life, mom and dad taught you well. I love you. Me.

Eugene Y. Lao | Regional General Counsel, Asia Pacific, Yahoo! Inc.

Michael is an exceptionally talented lawyer, inspirational leader and principled human being, but above all, a dear friend. Replacing this uncommon combination of attributes is nearly impossible. Unless I get a smart dog.

The Miskas

Michael is the type of an individual that most of us strive to become – he is smart, kind, thoughtful, considerate, disciplined and determined to accomplish his goals.  However, his strongest trait is that he is a true “blues man/sailor” who understands and listens to not only his head and heart, but also to his soul.  Sail on!

Pierre Landy | Regional General Counsel, EMEA, Yahoo! Inc.

Thanks Michael for being such a great mentor and friend, not necessarily in that order!

One of my favorite things about you is your ability to delegate and completely let go, as evidenced by the note from you below:

“Pierre, this is entirely your call as to how you organize this conference – You are after all in charge of Europe. I just would like to suggest that you organize it in Paris, for two days, from Tuesday to Thursday, at a Hotel that costs no more than a 150 euros per night, with workshops every morning, a maximum of one team activity during the conference which should look like it’s a serious thing such as visiting Versailles, and then one guest speaker – for the rest, you’re totally free to organize as you see fit, so long as you check with me first”.

Bon vent!

Danny O’Brien | Internet Advocacy Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists

I think it was Buckminister Fuller who theorized that the craziest of visionaries are always prompted to follow the setting sun, and that’s why so many of them had piled up against the Californian coast, ambitious and optimistic but still not quite brave enough to throw themselves into the sea and sail off into the ever-receding future. I am delighted, and unsurprised, that Michael has escaped the iron grip of the land. Fair winds and following seas!

Amaka Okobi

It was a pleasure meeting Michael. He is everything  you said. I wish him and his family all that God has for them. I am glad I had the blessing of meeting him before he left.

Jeff Krilla | Principal, Public Law & Policy Strategies, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State)

In my four years at the State Department when any internet-related issue would make it to the seventh floor, every senior State Department official would ask “What does Samway think?”   Now, every time I watch the movies “The Perfect Storm” or “Waterworld” I will ask the same question.

Many thanks, Michael, for your leadership, innovative thinking and compassion on the issue of Internet freedom.

I look forward to following the exploits of Team Samway on their seafaring blog as closely as I followed the BHRP blog!

Anchors aweigh!

Nicholas Crouch | APAC Senior Manager for Corporate Security & Safety, Yahoo! Inc.

I remember Michael and Jerry Yang shopping in an Egyptian antiques shop on the Middle East trip. As security we would always keep within earshot of the guys we were looking after. Jerry ended up buying some large piece of Egyptian art and haggled very successfully with the Egyptian shop owner who agreed on a pretty fine price. After Jerry had paid for his newfound treasure, the shop owner turned to him and said, “But how can you possibly fit this in your hand luggage?” Michael, being the astute humourist, quipped, “Don’t worry, he has his own plane”. A nanosecond later he realized that perhaps this choice of words was not the best as he was next in line to pay for his newly found Egyptian treasure. Needless to say Michael’s haggling was not as successful as Jerry’s. . .

Mark Bench | World Press Freedom Committee

While I’ve only known Michael through the Global Network Initiative for the last 3-4 years, it’s been sufficient to gain a great respect for his diligence, perseverance, and travel lust!  Because he lived with his family abroad–Chile for 2 1/2 years–and elsewhere, he’s gained a respect for other cultures and peoples.  His spoken Spanish is outstanding, so that if he’s ever caught in the wilds of the Latin American rain forests, I feel certain that he’ll be able to negotiate himself out with panache.  He’s as comfortable in the offices of some of the most prestigious law firms in the United States as he is encouraging a first year student at Georgetown.  We wish him, his wife, their son and daughter the very best on their seemingly quixotic sailing journey.  Perhaps their greatest task will be home [err--boat] schooling their children.  They will be citizens of the world, those lucky kids!  Keep reading good books and sharing titles with us.  We’ll miss you on the GNI, but will never forget your pioneering spirit and remarkable leadership in shepherding the organization through the shoals of getting us set up as a legal entity.  Bon voyage, good friend.

Arvind Ganesan | Director, Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch

The first time I met him, Michael told me about how he had done human rights work in Chile about a decade earlier and worked with this other person who was also very interested in human rights.  He asked me if I had ever heard of her, and said that it was funny he asked.  She works down the hall from me and has worked for me over the last five years.  When he finally came to DC, he got a chance to meet her after years.

Jennifer Samway

Hats off (or should I say on) to Michael for his amazing tenure at Yahoo! over the last decade.  His work has been both challenging and rewarding in many ways too numerous to recount in this short note of appreciation.  His dedication and commitment in upholding the highest standards for both himself and his team have been realized.  The trust and respect he has earned from his many co-workers has been demonstrated through all of the kind words, emails, farewell speeches, and thoughtful gifts that have been sent during his last few weeks at Yahoo!.

It has been a wonderful time for our family to be a part of the Yahoo! experience over the years.

We will miss the friendships that have been gained, but hope that you will all follow along with us in our new adventure out in the open water.  It is time for Michael to put all of those wonderful leadership skills he has developed to good use as captain of his own ship and destiny.

Thanks to Michael and Yahoo! for starting this adventure, now it’s time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. . .

Michael Samway, Sr.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Mike.  Now that his corporate image is no longer a consideration, and as a dad proud of both his person and achievements — I’d like to share this with his colleagues.

Homa Samway

Michael always was determined to be a perfectionist and complete whatever he was doing/involved in and to do it right. He is also very kind, giving, and dedicated. I am a very proud mum and blessed.

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Reflections on Yahoo!’s 2010 Business & Human Rights Summit

By BHRP

Christine Bader and Sarah Labowitz | Vasanth Rakasi

Guest Post, by Christine Bader, Advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on business and human rights

(See here for video highlights of the Summit, here for photos of the Summit, and here for the 2010 Flickr Gallery!)

As I pored over my notes on the flight home from Tuesday’s second annual Yahoo! Business & Human Rights summit, three themes emerged — context, scale, and education — as did a few reflections about this moment in the tech industry’s history.

Many speakers at the summit urged us to consider technology’s intersection with free expression and privacy in its broader context.  Kum Hong Siew, former member of Singapore’s parliament, stressed the importance of understanding the offline regulatory situation in a country before honing in on the government’s approach to the internet and social media.  Kathleen Reen from Internews reminded us that we’re not discussing mere technical issues, but challenges that are situated within human rights and the rule of law.

Context is critical at both macro and micro levels.  Scott Rubin from Google discussed the difficulty in deciding whether to take down YouTube content, which requires assessing the intention of the uploader.  For example, violent footage could be taken down in accordance with a site’s Terms of Service, but might be critical if revealing excessive force by police.

Scale was considered from a number of perspectives:  global vs local, mass market vs niche, small vs big.  Companies grapple with how to reconcile global policies with local laws and norms; national governments struggle to manage companies’ international reach and content.

Elia Varela Serra believes that demand will grow for niche products like Maneno, the blogging platform she co-founded for sub-Saharan Africa, which enables local language content and easy uploading for areas with poor connectivity.  On the other hand, Sameer Padania of Witness.org tried to build a video sharing hub for human rights activists but found that many of them used YouTube, so switched his focus to ensuring appropriate space for human rights-related content in mass market tools.

The Global Network Initiative (GNI) has forged personal relationships that have proved invaluable when crises occur.  But the GNI won’t always be comprised of the same founding individuals, and aims to grow in terms of membership and the number of people its members touch.  Companies currently take a case-by-case approach to the human rights challenges they face — but that can’t be sustainable for a business like YouTube, to which users upload 24 hours of video every minute.

All of the panels emphasized the importance of education:  about human rights, about the risks of online life and activism, and about the tools that can protect them like UltraReach and AnchorFree.  Kim Pham of AccessNow, Reen of InterNews and Sarah Labowitz of the U.S. State Department were among those who discussed their initiatives to educate constituencies, from activists to journalists to foreign service officers respectively.

I’ve observed and advised GNI since its inception, so have seen firsthand the tech industry’s coming to terms with its impacts on human rights.

The industry is exceptionally dynamic in terms of its products and services, the ways in which its offerings are employed by a wildly diverse population, and its relationships with other companies, governments, and civil society.

But its experience with regard to human rights is not unique.  Many other sectors, most notably extractives and apparel, have gone through a similar process of

1. realizing their impacts on human rights, positive and negative;
2. taking responsibility for those impacts;
3. recognizing that they’ll be more effective collaborating with peers and stakeholders than going it alone;
4. piloting solutions and discussing how to scale them up; and
5. understanding that respecting human rights is a necessary and permanent requirement, but one that will take countless twists and turns — so prioritizing relationships and principles rather than specific prescriptions.

By this time next year, the industry will no doubt be grappling with new technologies employed in new ways by new users, new regulatory and social expectations, new players and different incarnations of old ones.  The Global Network Initiative and Tuesday’s event are terrific examples of that fifth stage above, that I hope and expect will support ongoing collaboration and effective solutions.  Watch this space.

Christine Bader is Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative on business and human rights.

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Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Summit, May 4!

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

On Tuesday, May 4, Yahoo! will be hosting our second annual Business & Human Rights Summit! The Summit will feature experts from the business, academic, journalist, human rights and advocacy communities – each with a unique perspective but united in a common desire to address the complex threats to free expression and user privacy.

Panels include a discussion about Governments, Technology and Human Rights, in which panelists including Sarah Labowitz of the U.S. State Department and Christine Bader, Advisor to the UN Special Representative for Business & Human Rights, and Kum Hong Siew, former member of parliament, Singapore will discuss various approaches to addressing free expression and privacy rights in the Internet, Technology and Communications (ICT) sector.

Another panel, entitled Technological Solutions to Free Expression and Privacy Issues, will address innovative solutions targeted at evading government restrictions on free expression and privacy.   Panelists include Evgeny Morozov, Yahoo!’s 2010 Georgetown Fellow and contributing editor to Foreign Policy; Andrew Lewman of the Tor Project; Kathleen Reen of Internews and Alan Huang of UltraFree Internet.

We will also feature a panel about the intersection between social media and social change, in which journalists, bloggers, social entrepreneurs and film-makers will hold a discussion about the role of media and technology as a platform for free expression and social change, and shared innovative methods of amplifying voices from around the world.  Panelists include Abbas Gassem, Founder and Editor, Inside Somalia;  Sameer Padania, Hub Manager, Witness.org; Nadia Trinidad, Yahoo! Stanford Fellow and senior correspondent, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Company, Manila, Philippines, Elia Serra, co-founder and director of Maneno, and Omid Memarian, UC Berkeley Rotary Peace Fellow and Iranian journalist and blogger.

Finally, we will also have a fascinating discussion about Unconventional Threats to Online Privacy and Free Expression, during which we will learn about how issues like account deactivation and terms of service violations can have unintended chilling effects on privacy and free expression. Panelists for that discussion include Dr. Mehdi Yahyanejad, founder and editor of Balatarin.com, Kim Pham of AccessNow, and Danny O’Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

For more information about the Summit, please see here. For those of you can’t make it to Sunnyvale to join us, we will be posting video shortly after the event, so please stay tuned!

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Yahoo! Celebrates World Press Freedom Day

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

On Monday, May 3, Yahoo! will celebrate World Press Freedom Day. Go to yahoo.com on May 3, click on the icon on the Yahoo! logo at the top of the page, and you’ll be linked to a site with information about the history of World Press Freedom Day, profiles of journalists from around the world, and information about a few organizations that are working to keep access to information free and open around the world. You can also learn about events like Yahoo!’s second annual Business & Human Rights Summit on May 4, and about Global Voices Online’s Summit in Chile, on May 6-7.

Mark your calendar, and check it out on Monday!

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Abbas Gassem of Inside Somalia on Social Media and Social Change

By BHRP

[Guest blogger Abbas Gassem, of Inside Somalia, (and Yahoo! employee) talks about his work, and the role of the Internet in supporting communication and information sharing across cultures.]

In June 2007, I founded insidesomalia.org, a news and social networking website focused on Somalia.

My motivations to start the website were due to the limited knowledge and a view of insignificance outsiders have about the Horn of Africa.

When people mention Somalia to me, they use such words as: pirates, failed state, Black Hawk Down, refugees, Extremist Islamists, poor, and clan politics. Whilst these words on the surface are true, it requires deeper analysis to fully understand the crisis taking place in the past 20 years.

Traditional media has limited space and time to highlight the problems of Somalia in depth, causing the lack of understanding about the region.

The Internet carries an immense power in shaping a nation’s agenda. The old gatekeepers of media; television, newspapers and radio, have a lesser role in the dispersal of information. Insidesomalia.org aims to take advantage of the new media to educate the global community by bringing together an extensive resource of information.

We are living interesting times; never has it been easier, faster or cheaper to create and publish content.

It is important that people are able express their views and feel a sense of control of their destiny.

To what extent do these technologies contribute to conflict resolution?

All media have vital roles to play; the Internet in particular will play a pivotal part in bringing peace and addressing key issues of the reconstruction of Somalia.

On the conflict resolutions the Internet can:

Bring forth the voices of moderates, “the silent majority”;

Hold the Somali government & International community accountable to the people;

Be a platform to discuss & exchange views to building peaceful & prosperous society;

Looking beyond the current state of conflict, the Internet will serve all sectors of society, namely:

To ensure that the government is transparent and open to the people;

To help lift people out of poverty by giving low cost access to educational and healthcare.

To connect businesses and consumers to the global marketplace.

It will be a long journey, mistakes will probably be made, but through the Internet and the networking of billions of people, an unprecedented force for the good can be achieved.

-Abbas Gassem, Founder and Editor, Inside Somalia and Senior Manager, APG and Business Optimisation, Yahoo! UK

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Mr. Yang goes to Washington

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

On April 26th, Jerry Yang was a featured speaker at President Obama’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. To read his speech, and see video of his remarks, check out the blog post at Yodel Anecdotal.

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Yahoo! Georgetown Fellow, Evgeny Morozov, leads panel on Digital Power and Its Discontents

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, co-sponsored by Yahoo!’s Georgetown Fellowship, will host a  conference  on April 21st, from 10.30 until 4.30. The one-day conference will be hosted by Yahoo Georgetown Fellow, Evgeny Morozov.

The day will feature thought-provoking discussions about the ways that digital technologies can disrupt the balance of power between and among states, their citizens and the private sector. Speakers will include Ambassador Philip Verveer, John Morris of CDT, and Rebecca MacKinnon.

For more information and to RSVP, please go here.

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