OTI Takes on RightsCon 2018

Last month, representatives from New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) and Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) attended RightsCon 2018, the seventh iteration of the world’s leading conference on human rights in the digital age, which took place in Toronto. In three jam-packed days, a global community of business leaders, policy makers, advocates, general counsels, government representatives, technologists, and human rights defenders tackled some of the most pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology. OTI and RDR had the pleasure of organizing and speaking at a number of sessions, highlighting pertinent issues and sparking valuable conversations on net neutrality, surveillance, digital rights and access, and more.

As the U.S. Senate was on the cusp of voting to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of the 2015 net neutrality rules, OTI convened a session on evidence-based approaches to net neutrality enforcement, moderated by OTI’s Georgia Bullen. In this session, participants explored how an international comparative lens demonstrates the importance of net neutrality principles in protecting an open and free internet. Internet service providers may argue that zero rating saves people money, but internet costs usually decrease by 10 percent annually in markets without zero rating, while they increase by 2 percent annually in markets that allow zero rating. Looking to international jurisdictions also provides insight into different mechanisms for enforcement, tools for proactive monitoring, and regulatory models.

A global approach also encourages us to think critically about the broad reach of issues at the intersection of human rights and digital technology. Trading Up: What Net Neutrality Means for Small Businesses and Trade, moderated by OTI’s Eric Null, put an unconventional spin on the topic of net neutrality as it explored the impact of net neutrality through a human-centered and international trade lens. Net neutrality can have implications far beyond national borders. For instance, even though Canada has net neutrality principles as part of its Telecommunications Act, the United States’ net neutrality rules—or the lack thereof—have a significant impact on Canadian internet users because over half of Canadian web traffic comes through U.S. networks. As a result, Canada is considering advocating for Canadian business protections with the United States in NAFTA negotiations. In countries like India, the net neutrality debate grew to adopt a similar framing that seeks to protect local businesses.

Discussions around net neutrality demonstrate that issues in the field may be highly technical. However, the human rights aspect of these net neutrality related issues is equally important, as this dimension helps frame the issues in ways that garner public support and involvement. In India, for example, net neutrality is framed not only as a technical issue, but an economic and political one: it is fundamentally an issue of digital access. Indeed, the importance of public support was a theme in one RDR session, Tactics for Advancing Digital Rights in Developing Economies and Challenging Political Contexts: An RDR Perspective. Public pressure and stakeholder engagement on corporate transparency and accountability can sometimes be more effective than governments in motivating the private sector to act to protect privacy and freedom of expression rights.

Surveillance was also a topic that was widely discussed by OTI and RDR representatives at RightsCon. In early May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond ruled that law enforcement could not search a traveler’s cellphone at the U.S. border without individualized suspicion that they had committed a crime. The ruling re-opened longstanding debates about whether the Fourth Amendment remains intact at the U.S. border, as well as when, and if, cell phone searches are legal. OTI’s Robyn Greene spoke at a public roundtable on the evolving nature of cell phone searches, which range from device searches at the border to compelled decryption, and how they fit into or challenged the legal landscapes in the United States and Canada.

In both the United States and Canada, legal frameworks are still catching up to technological advancements. In the United States, courts’ delay in recognizing the power of new surveillance technologies has enabled law enforcement agencies to use tools that threaten the rights and privacy of individuals across the country. These weak frameworks have also had consequences outside of the country, as many nations base their own legal standards on those of the United States. In Canada, for example, there is significant concern from advocates that the Canadian government will take a page out of the United States’ book and refuse its citizens and residents adequate data and device protections. The roundtable session was a valuable opportunity for advocates, activists, and technologists to learn about how cell phone surveillance issues are managed in the United States and Canada, and to engage on similar challenges and insights from around the world.

These snippets offer only a glimpse into the thoughtful conversations that took place at RightsCon last month. OTI is grateful for the opportunity to break down silos, cultivate new connections, and work toward a more free, open, and connected world at RightsCon, and we look forward to next year’s rendition!