Session
Organizer 1: Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 1: Tetiana Avdieieva, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Marwa Fatafta, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Julia Haas, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 2: Marwa Fatafta, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Julia Haas, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: DSLU intends to have a brief (30 min) expert discussion by four speakers working on platform regulation, intersection of IHL and IHRL, as well as documenting the human rights violations on the tech platforms and assessing the quality of their response. This exchange aims at providing the framework for the workshop and unpack the key questions we seek to address within this event. Following the kick-off discussion we would like to have three offline and two online break-out groups that for the following 40 minutes will be (a) discussing the challenges with tech platforms accountability in their contexts, and (b) brainstorming the potential legal and policy solutions, including the collective actions. Afterwards, DSLU will provide 20 minutes to share the outcomes with the room, summarize the discussion and plan the future steps and opportunities for collaboration.
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: DSLU intends to have a brief (30 min) expert discussion by four speakers working on platform regulation, intersection of IHL and IHRL, as well as documenting the human rights violations on the tech platforms and assessing the quality of their response. This exchange aims at providing the framework for the workshop and unpack the key questions we seek to address within this event. Following the kick-off discussion we would like to have three offline and two online break-out groups that for the following 40 minutes will be (a) discussing the challenges with tech platforms accountability in their contexts, and (b) brainstorming the potential legal and policy solutions, including the collective actions. Afterwards, DSLU will provide 20 minutes to share the outcomes with the room, summarize the discussion and plan the future steps and opportunities for collaboration.
Policy Question(s)
A. What are the existing accountability mechanisms to address the responsibility of tech platforms for gross human rights violations, breaches of IHL and ICL?
B. What challenges and obstacles are faced by those who initiate cases related to accountability of tech platforms for the aforementioned violations, especially outside the US and the EU legal order?
C. How should domestic and international legal systems be reshaped to address the gap in accountability of tech platforms for the aforementioned violations?
What will participants gain from attending this session? DSLU intends to provide a mapping of key challenges and potential solutions that might be used to coordinate stakeholders on the local and regional levels. Given the diverse background of the key contributors and invited participants, we hope to receive insights from various regions and contexts to get the most complete picture regarding the current stage of platform accountability discourse. The best scenario also implies discussing and outlining specific tools to fill in the gaps in the area of tech platforms accountability (legal, policy and practical), e.g. coordination with iGOs to produce regulatory/recommendatory documents, coordination with local governments to enhance legal systems, joining ongoing legal actions initiated by civil society against tech platforms for their inaction in times of crisis. Those who work on the ground will enrich their practices with new tools and approaches, as well as get new allies to unite the forces with.
Description:
Platforms’ contributions to facilitation of crisis situations, including armed conflicts, suppression of civic movements, genocides and other atrocities, often remain with no response. The reasoning behind such inaction varies from lack of jurisdiction to adequately enforce the legislative regulation to actual lack of regulatory frameworks in the area of platform accountability. This workshop, as a part of Sustainable and Responsible Innovation building effort, aims to highlight the gaps in ethical, policy and regulatory response to emerging and long-standing threats posed by tech platforms. Its multilayered nature addresses both cyberthreats to human rights and lack of mechanisms to safeguard the integrity of digital platforms, preventing the spread of malicious and highly dangerous content. The workshop will consist of two parts, combining the focused expert discussion with a follow-up breakout activity, where all participants will be able to meaningfully exchange their experience, share insights and ideas. This structure will allow both to ensure that all experts are on the same page regarding the current setting and the discourse, as well as enrich the discussion with diverse case studies, examples, strategies and tools deployed all over the globe. During the workshop participants will explore case studies of poor crisis response by tech platforms and lack of their accountability, focusing on (but not limited to) examples from Ukraine, Palestine, Belarus, Armenia and Myanmar. During the break-out activities participants will map the common challenges faced in different contexts and explore possible venues/instruments for creating reliable and effective accountability mechanisms. The outcomes of the workshop will be further used to enhance the strategies for domestic and regional advocacy, strategic litigations and regulatory effort that is necessary for establishing justice in the digital space.
Platforms’ contributions to facilitation of crisis situations, including armed conflicts, suppression of civic movements, genocides and other atrocities, often remain with no response. The reasoning behind such inaction varies from lack of jurisdiction to adequately enforce the legislative regulation to actual lack of regulatory frameworks in the area of platform accountability. This workshop, as a part of Sustainable and Responsible Innovation building effort, aims to highlight the gaps in ethical, policy and regulatory response to emerging and long-standing threats posed by tech platforms. Its multilayered nature addresses both cyberthreats to human rights and lack of mechanisms to safeguard the integrity of digital platforms, preventing the spread of malicious and highly dangerous content. The workshop will consist of two parts, combining the focused expert discussion with a follow-up breakout activity, where all participants will be able to meaningfully exchange their experience, share insights and ideas. This structure will allow both to ensure that all experts are on the same page regarding the current setting and the discourse, as well as enrich the discussion with diverse case studies, examples, strategies and tools deployed all over the globe. During the workshop participants will explore case studies of poor crisis response by tech platforms and lack of their accountability, focusing on (but not limited to) examples from Ukraine, Palestine, Belarus, Armenia and Myanmar. During the break-out activities participants will map the common challenges faced in different contexts and explore possible venues/instruments for creating reliable and effective accountability mechanisms. The outcomes of the workshop will be further used to enhance the strategies for domestic and regional advocacy, strategic litigations and regulatory effort that is necessary for establishing justice in the digital space.
Expected Outcomes
DSLU expects to finalise a mapping of the key challenges and obstacles connected to accountability of tech platforms for gross human rights breaches in crisis situations, including the violations of IHL and ICL. We would like to map potential legal and policy solutions to further prioritize them depending on effectiveness and accessibility of necessary tools. DSLU plans to have a line of follow-up discussions to unpack most effective solutions that are brainstormed during this session. A final product of these discussions will include a strategy for collective action to address the accountability gaps on domestic and international levels. This workshop will also facilitate exchange of experience and contacts to strengthen the regional networks and help them to coordinate in responding to such challenges.
Hybrid Format: DSLU intends to combine an expert discussion setting the scene and ensuring all participants are on the same page with interactive discussions in the break-out groups and further presentation of the findings. Both offline and virtual participants will be able to ask questions and make remarks to follow-up the thoughts expressed by other experts after an expert panel and within the presentations stage. Also, to ensure the comfort for intense brainstorm sessions during break-out activities, DSLU plans to have separate moderators for two online and three online groups that will facilitate the exchange of opinions.
DSLU considers using the Miro board to ensure the interactive format of the session, to simplify the delivery of the ideas based on the break-out activities, as well as to better structure the outcomes of the discussion. Depending on the number of participants we might resort to other virtual instruments, such as Mentimeter.