Towards a universal declaration on internet rights and freedoms?

Abstract

This article, conceived as a mainly empirically based contribution, analyses a discursive context composed of 58 documents proclaiming Internet-related human rights drafted and launched by different actors between 1997 and 2015. The article hypothesises that a discourse on Internet-related human rights is being shaped, autonomous from the broader discourse on Internet governance. Therefore, differently from other scholarly works, it does not focus on the many initiatives aimed at defining principles for the governance of the Internet but only on those documents that specifically aim to proclaim Internet-related rights and freedoms. The article, first, analyses the findings of a software-enabled content analysis aimed at (1) identifying the key issues that dominate the discourse, (2) assessing the evolution of the discourse in the last two decades and (3) identifying the thematic priorities of different types of drafting entities. Second, it discusses possible research, policy and legal developments.

Digital Constitutionalism: Using the Rule of Law to Evaluate the Legitimacy of Governance by Platforms

“…There is a growing global unease about how the rights of individuals can be protected online (Pettrachin, 2018). Sir Tim Berners-Lee, for example, has recently called for a "Magna Carta for the Web" (Kiss, 2014) to protect the rights of individuals, and the W3C's "Web We Want" initiative has taken up the campaign.…”

Kohti dataoikeudenmukaisuutta – ehdotuksia tutkijoilta ja liikkeiltä

“…) Viime vuosikymmenten aikana lukuisat manifestit ja poliittiset julistukset ovat hahmottaneet digitaalisella aikakaudella tarvittavia reunaehtoja, kuten kansalaisten digitaalisia oikeuksia sekä yritysten ja valtioiden vastuita. Näiden tekstien laatimiseen ovat osallistuneet kansalaisjärjestöt, aktivistit, tutkijat, kansainväliset organisaatiot, valtiot, teknologiayritykset ja kaikkien edellä mainittujen koalitiot (Redeker, Gill ja Gasser 2018;Pettrachin 2018). Kun varhaiset internet-julistukset, kuten John Perry Barlow'n (1996) A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, vaativat internetin rajatonta vapautta valtioiden kontrollista, useat viimeaikaiset manifestit kohdistavat kritiikkinsä valvontakapitalismiin.…”

An Educational Framework in Digital Rights and Responsibilities for Young Entrepreneurs

“…A discourse of Internet-related human rights is thus emerging, independently of the broader context of governance of the Internet (Pettrachin, 2018), where controversial concerns are expressed about the relationship between platforms, their users, and the information obtained from platforms and given to citizens, among other questions. With these issues comes the increasingly urgent need to find a way to apply these values to articulate a set of desirable restrictions to the power exercised by the digital world.…”