Q2/2021 - 10. RightsCon, 9. – 12. Juni 2021

10. RightsCon, 9. – 12. Juni 2021

Eine der größten Internet-Konferenzen der Welt, die „RightsCon“ fand vom 9. – 11. Juni 2021 erneut als eine virtuelle Konferenz statt. Die RightsCon feierte 2021 ihr zehntes Jubiläum. Mit 9.120 Teilnehmern aus 164 Ländern war sie die bislang größte RightsCon. Insgesamt gab es 527 Einzelveranstaltungen.

  • Es gab nahezu kein Internet-relevantes Thema, dass nicht auf der Tagesordnung stand. Insgesamt hatten die Organisatoren 21 Themenfelder identifiziert. Dazu gehörten 1. Artificial Intelligence, 2. Automation, and the Algorithm, 3. Civil Society Resistance and Resilience, 4. Content Control and Censorship, 5. Cyber Norms, Accountability, and Practice, 6. Data Protection and User Control, 7. Democracy, Elections, and Political Participation, 8. Digital Security for Individuals and Communities, 9. Freedom of the Media, 10. Futures, Fictions, and Creativity, 11. Human Rights-Centered Design, 12. Internet Access, Education, and Inclusion, 13. Internet Shutdowns and Network Disruptions, 14. Justice, Documentation, and Investigation, 15. New Models for Business and Labor, 16. Next Frontier Technologies, 17. Online Hate and Violent Extremism, 18. Organizational Growth, Impact, and Resources, 19. Peacebuilding and Digital Humanitarianism, 20. Privacy and Surveillance und 21. Trade, Innovation, and Intellectual Property.
  • Veranstaltet wird die RightsCon von der zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisation „Access Now“. Brett Solomon, Exekutiv-Direktor von „Access Now“ präsentierte in seinen Schlussbemerkungen eine „To-Do-Liste“ für Regierungen mit insgesamt 15 Forderungen, darunter Stärkung des Multistakeholder-Models für Internet Governance und eine engere Konsultation mit der Zivilgesellschaft, Beitritt zur Freedom Online Coalition, Verbot von biometrischer Überwachung, Schutz von Verschlüsselung privater Internet-Kommunikation und eine bessere digitale Ausbildung von Richtern, Politikern und Parlamentariern. [1] 2022 soll die 11. RightsCon wieder als ein reales Treffen stattfinden.
  • Zu den konkreten Ergebnissen der 2021er RightsCon zählen u.a.
    • Das „Joint Statement“ von zehn UN-Sonderberichterstattern, darunter von Irene Khan, UN-Sonderberichterstatter zur Meinungsäußerungsfreiheit, zu den menschenrechtlichen Herausforderungen, die für die digitale Sphäre im Gefolge der Pandemie entstanden sind. [2] Viele Regierungen hätten die Pandemie zum Vorwand genommen, um Grundrechte einzuschränken. Das beträfe vor allem das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung und den Schutz der Privatsphäre. In dem Statement werden Unternehmen aufgefordert, keine Überwachungstechnologie an Regierungen zu liefern, die in ihren Ländern zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen unterdrücken. Unternehmen seien mitverantwortlich für den Respekt und den Schutz von Menschenrechten.
    • Während der RightsCon unterzeichneten 25 zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen und über 500 Individuen die von Access Now gestartete Initiative zum Verbot biometrischer Überwachung. [3] Am 5. Juni 2021 hat sich Access Now in einem „Offenen Brief“ an Regierungen und Unternehmen gewandt, sich für ein Verbot biometrischer Massenüberwachung einzusetzen. Solche Technologien hätten das Potential grundlegende Menschenrechte zu unterminieren. In dem Brief heißt es: „We, the undersigned, call for an outright ban on uses of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance. These tools have the capacity to identify, follow, single out, and track people everywhere they go, undermining our human rights and civil liberties — including the rights to privacy and data protection, the right to freedom of expression, the right to free assembly and association (leading to the criminalization of protest and causing a chilling effect), and the rights to equality and non-discrimination.“ Konkret angesprochen werden China, die USA, Russland, England, Uganda, Kenia, Slowenien, Myanmar, die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate, Israel, Indien, Argentinien, Brasilien, Thailand und Italien, wo solche Technologien bereits zum Einsatz gekommen und gegen zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen vorgegangen worden sei.
    • Die dänische Regierung nutzte die RightsCon für den Start ihrer Initiative „Tech for Democracy“. [4] Am 18. November 2021 soll in Kopenhagen eine große Multistakeholder-Konferenz stattfinden bei der es um neue Kooperationsformen und Projekte gehen soll, wie durch den Einsatz von Internet-Technologie die Demokratie gestärkt werden kann.
Mehr zum Thema
Q2/2021
  1. [1] Brett Solomon, RightsCon checklist: 15 ways to save the internet and protect democracy „1. Get the whole population online, especially the most marginalized , 2. Protect encryption rather than undermine it, 3. Legislate enforceable and robust data protection laws, 4. Make multi-stakeholderism real by consulting with digital civil society, 5. Join the Freedom Online Coalition, 6. Be consistent at home and abroad on digital rights practices and policy, 7. Ban facial recognition and all biometric surveillance in publicly accessible spaces, 8. Ensure content regulation by states and moderation by companies is rights respecting, 9. Don’t spy on citizens nor deploy surveillance infrastructure against marginalized communities, 10. Resist moves toward so-called data and digital sovereignty, which enable authoritarianism, 11. Stop unlawfully requesting user data from tech companies, 12. Protect the right to freedom of assembly and peaceful protest online, 13. Ensure that COVID tracing apps, vaccine passports, and other pandemic responses don’t destroy privacy and freedom of movement in the meantime, 14. Train your judges, policy makers, and legislators in digital rights 15. #Keep On“, in: https://www.accessnow.org/rightscon-checklist/
  2. [2] Pandemic recovery: Digital rights key to inclusive and resilient world, Statement by ten UN Special Rapporteurs, 9. Juni 2021: „The experts said the pandemic had particularly heightened digital inequalities and discrimination against, among others: people of African descent, ethnic groups, minority groups and communities facing religious, and ethnic discrimination, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, internally displaced people, people affected by extreme poverty, women and girls, older persons, migrants and refugees, LGBTQ+, gender diverse persons, human rights and environmental defenders, journalists and activists, worldwide. They also raised concern about ongoing repression of peaceful protests around the world and an unprecedented spike in reports of child sexual abuse material online. The experts stressed that States — and the tech sector — must take additional systemic measures so that their efforts reach those who are most at risk of being disproportionately affected. Platforms must be inclusive through engaging people in the ground and improving their investments in least developed countries. "We must leave no one behind — online or offline," they said. The experts reiterated the need for States to maintain their positive obligation to promote and protect human rights, including through rights-respecting regulations on tech companies. Initiatives to regulate online spaces need to be participatory and fully grounded in human rights standards. Businesses need to uphold their responsibility to respect human rights, including by reviewing their business models, and be held accountable for acts of digital repression, such as the non-transparent content takedowns and manipulation recently witnessed in various regions of the world. "The opacity that prevails in the ways content is moderated by Governments and companies reinforces global perceptions of discrimination, inefficiency and censorship. There is an urgent need for transparency", stressed the experts. The experts further called on companies to stop supplying governments with technologies — such as spyware tools and applications claiming to recognise faces, genders, disabilities and emotions — which reinforce risks for defenders and civil society actors when exercising their legitimate right to voice critical concerns and defend human rights. Businesses need to prevent and address these risks and avoid contributing consciously or inadvertently to further shrinking civic space. The experts also cautioned against the repurposing of security and counter-terrorism measures, specifically the use of new technologies, data collection, surveillance and biometric technologies to securitise health and regulate a health pandemic whose effects are most severely felt by minority and groups at heightened risk. They demanded that already controversial public-private security partnerships be subjected to additional scrutiny when leveraged into the public health arena.“ In: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27140&LangID=E
  3. [3] Open letter calling for a global ban on biometric recognition technologies that enable mass and discriminatory surveillance, 5. Juni 2021: „For that reason, we call on: 1. International organizations, such as the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Office (OHCHR), to step up and condemn the current development and use of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies to surveil communities across the globe; 2. Private entities that develop or use facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies to: a. Make public commitments to cease the creation, development, sale, and use of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance; b. Immediately cease the production of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance, and delete any illegitimately acquired biometric data used to build databases and any models or products built upon such data; c. Issue transparency reports that detail all their public contracts (including ones that are suspended, ongoing, or in the making) for the provision of these technologies; and d. Meaningfully engage with and refrain from retaliating against workers that organize in their workplaces to challenge or refuse the development of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance; 3. Workers of technology companies, with the support of their unions, to organize in their workplaces against the development or sale of facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies, to the extent possible; 4. Investors and financial institutions to: a. conduct human rights due diligence on their ongoing and future investments in companies developing and selling facial recognition and remote biometric recognition technologies in order to find where these technologies are incompatible with human rights and enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance; and, b. call on the companies they invest in to cease creating, developing, selling, or otherwise making available these technologies in ways that enable mass surveillance and discriminatory targeted surveillance; 5. Donor organizations to ensure funding for litigation and advocacy by non-governmental and civil society organizations that seek redress for harms before courts and actively engage in policymaking at local, state, provincial, national, federal, supranational, regional, and international systems.“ In: https://www.accessnow.org/ban-biometric-surveillance/
  4. [4] Dänisches Außenministerium: Tech for Democracy 2021: “Digital technology holds great potential for strengthening democracy and citizens’ engagement”. Die für den 18. November 2021 in Kopenhagen geplante Konferenz hat drei Ziele: „1.Develop a Call to Action. It should bring states, tech sector and civil society together to safeguard democratic space in the digital age, and stand up for democracy defenders under digital attack. It should promote responsible digital behavior among states and the tech sector including a free and open Internet, responsible use of social media and proactive use of technology to promote virtual inclusion of citizens. From the local to the global. 2. Deliver public-private partnerships to harness tech for democracy. There is a lot to build on. We will reach out to like-minded countries, tech companies, multilateral organizations, civil society actors, and academia to identify concrete actions and mobilize support for new public-private partnerships aimed at delivering solutions to advanced technology for democracy globally. 3. Empower civil society, media and democracy defenders. We will call for (and contribute) additional funding to ensure safety of activists under digital attack and to support the democratic use and development of technology among civil society, movements, and media organizations. We will assess the need for new funding instruments to achieve this goal“. In: https://um.dk/en/foreign-policy/tech-for-democracy-2021/