The Internet is a unique communications medium. Like no other medium before, it allows individuals to express their ideas and opinions directly to a world audience and easily to each other, while allowing access to many more ideas, opinions and information than previous media have allowed. Consequently, there is a vital connection between the Internet and human rights.

The Internet Is a Democratizing Medium, Uniquely Suited to the Promotion of Human Rights, But Threatened by Governmental Restrictions

Through the Internet, citizens from the most repressive regimes are able to find information about matters concerning their own governments and their human rights records that no newspaper may dare print, while denouncing the conditions under which they live, for the world to hear. The Internet allows an intimate look at other countries, other people and other cultures that few before were ever able to attain. This power to give and receive information, so central to any conception of democracy, can be truly achieved on the Internet, as nowhere before.

Further, through the use of encryption technology, citizens can have instantaneous communications with individuals all over the world that are much more resistant to government and private surveillance.

On the Internet, citizens are not mere consumers of content but also creators of content. This fundamental shift in power has created a possibility for every individual to be a publisher. Consequently, the content on the Internet is as diverse as human thought. Individuals and communities have been using the new-found freedom online to link, interact and work collectively in this global work space.

The effect of access to and use of this global interactive medium has been to promote
and defend civil and political rights worldwide. This unprecedented power, however, can be very threatening to repressive regimes. The experiences of communities in different countries indicates that few things could be more threatening to authoritarian regimes than access and use of a medium that knows no boundaries and is very hard to control. While traditional methods of censorship - embargoing newspapers and closing down presses - do not work on the Internet, the online censoring techniques that these regimes attempt can be just as destructive.

While the Internet is technologically resistant to government control, it is not immune from such control. Indeed, some countries have been quite sophisticated in exploiting the control and surveillance potential to great effect, at least in the short run. Just because the younger generation may know how to "hack" through proxy servers to avoid censorship does not mean that the youth are safe. These actions should be understood in the technological context -- that such hacking is probably obvious to government system administrators, and may make people vulnerable to being identified and prosecuted. Meanwhile, nations around the world are seeking to exploit the surveillance potential of this new medium, including by asserting control over the design and development of communications networks to maximize their surveillance capabilities.

For these reasons, governments and regional and international bodies should enact enforceable free expression guarantees, promote widespread access to and use of strong cryptographic tools that will enable real security, and provide legal protections of privacy, including controls on government surveillance.

The Internet and Human Rights Work

The Internet is one of the best means for communicating on human rights, because it is inexpensive and global. E-mail makes point-to-point communication between human rights workers and among NGOs (non-governmental organizations) cheap and easy, and allows for better coordination of actions. Furthermore, the Internet has the potential of reaching global audiences, including those most in need of such information. The Internet is important to those working for human rights, as it can provide a secure means of communicating between and coordinating the work of human rights groups. Consequently, human rights activists were among the first to make use of the Internet to --

• Coordinate actions and make contacts. Perhaps the most important application of the Internet in human rights is as a great tool for NGOs and activists to be in touch with each other, to share information privately, and to coordinate actions.
• Expose human rights violations and let people know about them. Many human rights organizations throughout the world have instituted e-mail lists to propagate their press releases, alerts and denunciations vis a vis human rights violations. Many of these groups also use Usenet to post their information, or it is posted there by others, and many groups have instituted web pages to make information available.
• Solicit action. Many organizations now use e-mail to distribute action alerts calling for letters to be written on behalf of specific issues.
• Gather information. The amount of human rights information online is extraordinary - beginning with the University of Minnesota web site, and now with the UNHCHR (United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights) site online, it's much easier to do human rights research.

By enabling early access to information, immediate dissemination of calls for campaigns, and the organization of wide international pressure, the Internet greatly increases the lobbying capacities of human rights groups.

It is vitally important, therefore, to promote freedom of expression and privacy as central elements of the development of the information society.

Internet Freedom in the US

Unfortunately, the US government¼s domestic policy has not been fully supportive of human rights on the Internet. The US Congress has twice enacted censorship legislation attempting to control content on the Internet. Under our strong constitutional protection of free speech, these laws have been ruled unconstitutional by the courts. Yet Members of Congress continue to press other restrictive measures, and proposals are pending to make Internet Service Providers (ISPs) liable for removing allegedly illegal or improper content. On the privacy side, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA) requires that telecommunications systems be designed to accommodate government surveillance, and that law has been perverted by the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission to not merely preserve but to enhance government wiretap capabilities. Only recently has the US government begun to turn away from its efforts to control the spread of encryption, which is crucial to security and privacy on the Internet. Still, officials in the Justice Department are trying to preserve their access to decryption keys, and the surveillance debate in the US is not over. Meanwhile, the US government refuses to publicly discuss its international eavesdropping activities, amid growing domestic and international concern over the nature of surveillance in a digital world and, in particular, the US government¼s "Echelon" surveillance system.

Internet Access Is Important to the Promotion of Human Rights.

The most often disregarded impediment to the achievement of the Internet¼s democratic potential is the problem of access. Accessing the Internet requires either the possession of a computer and payment to an Internet Service Provider or access to a facility where one can connect. This means that, generally, only the affluent will have access. Governments can control freedom of expression of sections of the population by hindering their access to the Internet. This may be done directly by imposing high taxes on computer products and supporting telephone monopolies that keep phone rates high and thus discourage the use of the Internet, or indirectly by failing to support community centers where people may have low-cost access to the Internet.

However, augmented Net access without civil liberties guarantees ‚ in technology and in law ‚ may not benefit individuals and may be coupled with government control and extended surveillance capability.

Freedom of Expression

The Universal Declaration, the European Convention and other international human rights agreements enshrine the rights to freedom of expression and access to information. These core documents explicitly protect freedom of expression "regardless of frontiers," a phrase especially pertinent to the global Internet:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, and regardless of frontiers." Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice." Article 19, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

"Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of borders." Article 10, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

No matter what the means, government restrictions on speech or access to speech of others violate basic freedom of expression protections. In addition to direct government censorship of Internet communications, or privatized censorship, freedom of speech in the Internet is threatened by diverse factors.

Blocking, filtering, and labeling techniques can restrict freedom of expression and limit access to information. Government-mandated use of blocking, filtering, and label systems violates basic international human rights protections. Global rating or labeling systems squelch the free flow of information. Efforts to force all Internet speech to be labeled or rated according to a single classification system distort the fundamental cultural diversity of the Internet and will lead to domination of one set of political or moral viewpoints. Diversity and user choice are essential: To the extent that individuals choose to employ filtering tools, it is vital that they have access to a wide variety of such tools.

"Self-regulatory" controls over Internet content, which have been promoted by some as an alternative to government regulation, ought not to place private ISPs in the role of police officers for the Internet. With regards to content, what is being suggested in the name of "self-regulation" is not that ISPs should as a group regulate their own behavior, but rather that they should regulate the speech of their customers. This is not true "self-regulation." The role of an Internet Service Provider is crucial for access to the Internet and because of the crucial role that they play, ISPs have been targeted by law enforcement agencies in many countries to act as content censors. While ISPs ought to provide law enforcement reasonable assistance in investigating criminal activity, confusing the role of private companies and police authorities risks substantial violation of individual civil liberties.

Privacy

The Universal Declaration, the European Convention and international human rights instruments enshrine the right to privacy. These core documents explicitly protect the privacy of correspondence and communication:

"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." Article 12, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation." Article 17, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." Article 8, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Privacy is becoming increasingly important for citizens in the information society. Electronic communications can be very easily intercepted by anyone who wants to. Sending an e-mail message is thus the equivalent of sending a postcard. In the human rights arena especially, many matters discussed among NGOs are extremely confidential. Names of witnesses to human rights violations, for example, need to be kept from those who would harm them. Repressive governments commonly use their intelligence services to tap the phone communications of human rights groups and intercept their mail. It is very likely that they are also intercepting electronic mail.

-- How privacy can be protected on the Internet

Unlike phone calls and paper mail, however, electronic mail can be easily encrypted so that only those to whom it is directed can read it. This means that anyone, such as NGOs, wanting to communicate delicate information freely can do so, without having to fear the consequences of others, such as governments, accessing it. Therefore, we believe that policies concerning cryptography should be based on the fundamental right to engage in private communication. Unfortunately, national governments have already taken steps to detain and harass users and developers of cryptography. Nonetheless, strong cryptography is already in use by human rights advocates and its further widespread use should be affirmatively promoted. We oppose efforts that would lead to the development of communications infrastructures designed for surveillance.


-- Anonymity

Central to free expression and the protection of privacy is the right to express political beliefs without fear of retribution and to control the disclosure of personal identity. Protecting the right of anonymity is therefore an essential goal for the protection of personal freedoms in the online world.

The right of anonymity is recognized in law and accepted by custom. It has been an integral part of the growth and development of the Internet. Some governments are working to extend techniques for anonymity.

But other efforts are underway to establish mandatory identification requirements and to limit the use of techniques that protect anonymity. For example, the G-8 recently considered a proposal to require caller identification for Internet users. Some local governments have also tried to adopt legislation that would prohibit access to the Internet without the disclosure of personal identity.

Governments should not require the identification of Internet users or restrict the ability to express political beliefs on the Internet anonymously. Efforts to develop new techniques to protect anonymity and identity should be encouraged. ISPs should not establish unnecessary identification requirements for customers and should, wherever practicable, preserve the right of users to access the Internet anonymously.

Summary and Policy Recommendations

When formulating policy with respect to the Internet, governments should be guided by certain core principles ‚

• Prohibiting prior censorship of on-line communication.
• Requiring that laws restricting the content of on-line speech distinguish between the liability of content providers and the liability of data carriers.
• Insisting that on-line free expression not be restricted by indirect means such as excessively restrictive governmental or private controls over computer hardware or software, the telecommunications infrastructure, or other essential components of the Internet.
• Including in the global Internet development process citizens from countries and regions that are currently unstable economically, have insufficient infrastructure, or lack sophisticated technology.
  • To ensure that Internet services are designed to ensure universal access, governments should provide full disclosure of information infrastructure development plans and encourage democratic participation in all aspects of the development process.
  • They should also advocate widespread use of the Internet and strive to provide adequate training.
  • In addition, governments should urge citizens to take an active role in public affairs by providing access to government information online.
• Prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
• Ensuring that personal information generated on the Internet for one purpose is not used for an unrelated purpose or disclosed without the person's informed consent and enabling individuals to review personal information on the Internet and to correct inaccurate information.
• Allowing on-line users to encrypt their communications and information without restriction.
• In order to guarantee the privacy of on-line communication, governments should put in place enforceable legal protections against unauthorized scrutiny and use by private or public entities of personal information on the Internet.
  • In addition, governments should conduct investigations on the Internet pursuant only to lawful authority and subject to independent judicial review.

For Further Information

A growing body of research, writing and activism not only in the United States but also in many other countries and in various international fora is promoting the application of international human rights law to the Internet. Some of the key research includes: the EPIC/Privacy International report "Privacy and Human Rights 1999: An International Survey of Privacy Laws and Developments," the CDT/GILC report "Regardless of Frontiers: Protecting the Human Right to Freedom of Expression on the Global Internet," the Human Rights Watch report "The Internet in the Mideast and North Africa ‚ Free Expression and Censorship," and the GILC Member statement, "Impact of Self-Regulation and Filtering on Human Rights to Freedom of Expression"

January 5, 2000

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