• Digital rights — which include the right to freedom of expression, privacy and access to information — are the same fundamental human rights as those enjoyed offline but adapted to a new age of technology.
• In understanding digital rights, it is important to understand the role of internet intermediaries, a range of actors who enable access to and use of the internet and whose actions play a critical role in protecting or undermining freedom of speech and associated digital rights online.
• Freedom of expression online is uniquely powerful because of its borderless nature, but it has created new legal challenges and consequences, such as the growth in dis- and misinformation, which has resulted in restrictive laws that hold editors and publishers liable for content posted on their websites and publications, including blogs, comments and news sites. Courts have reacted by validating the suspension and shutdown of communication and internet services on grounds of national security.
• It is crucial that human rights defenders engage with the new challenges posed online and act to protect and promote digital rights in the rapidly evolving online world.
Introduction
Digital rights are human rights that extend to the digital realm. The term ‘digital rights’ speaks to questions around how the same rights that have always been fundamental to all humans — such as freedom of expression, privacy and access to information — are exercised and protected in the era of the internet, social media and technology.
There is a tension between human rights and freedoms, and the rise in restrictions on access to and use of online spaces, which is continuing with increased political polarisation and the growing powers of non-state actors. Protecting and developing online spaces where human rights can be respected and promoted requires effective responses to oppressive regulations, and innovative solutions.
Additionally, understanding digital rights is crucial to being able to protect fundamental human rights online, as our lives today are almost entirely exposed to the forces of technology and the internet that have reshaped how we communicate, interact, participate and behave. Digital rights are the rights that apply in these spaces, including the particular nuances that come with the application of human rights online.
This module seeks to provide an overview of digital rights and trends affecting freedom of expression online in the Middle East and North Africa.
In this module
- Introduction
- What are Digital Rights?
- What is an Internet Intermediary
- The Borderless Enjoyment of Freedom of Expression
- The Right to Freedom of Expression Online
- Conclusion
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