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Ranking Digital Rights

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Idea

New America Fellow Rebecca Mackinnon saw the need to create a set of global human rights standards for companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

Incubation

Building on her 2012 book Consent of the Networked, which she wrote during her New America fellowship, Mackinnon established a coalition of partners who offered counsel and thought partnership on how to build such a set of global standards.

Impact

For the third year in a row, RDR produced a Corporate Accountability Index in 2019, which evaluates the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies based on how their disclosed policies and practices affect freedom of expression and privacy. The 2019 Index evaluated 24 companies and include all 22 previously-ranked companies, plus two new telecommunications companies. It has been covered widely in publications across the globe. More critically, a dozen of the companies listed in the 2018 Index have responded, with many reporting steps they have taken since the 2018 Index to improve.

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