Module 1: Translating Human Rights into Digital Rights

Digital rights designate the set of legal human rights most applicable to the online sphere. The literature on digital rights generally outlines the following rights:

  • Universal and equal access to the internet
  • Freedom of expression, communication, and access to information
  • Freedom of assembly, association, and participation
  • Privacy and data protection
  • Anonymity and the right to be forgotten
  • Protection of minors and young children

Beyond Digital Rights

Beyond emphasising the essential charter of rights listed above, the discussion on digital rights often fails to consider how all human rights might be upheld online, and how to mitigate the impact of online conduct on human rights offline. For instance, incitement to hatred online, can be linked to violent extremism and acts of violence targeting certain communities, in violation of such communities’ right to freedom from degradation and discrimination.

Tech Against Terrorism recommends that tech platforms observe all rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights equally, considering the impact of their online services both on the online and offline spaces.

Spotlight on The Right to Freedom of Expression

This toolkit has a focus on how your platform can uphold freedom of expression because “any counterterrorism measure online will remove or limit people’s ability to read see or hear the words, images and sounds they would otherwise wish to encounter; to express the words, images and sounds that they would otherwise like to express; or to engage in”

‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’.

  • The value of freedom of expression to the United Nations can be seen in a declaration made by the UN General Assembly during its first convention, according to which “Freedom of Information is a fundamental human right and … the touchstone of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated”.
  • Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides for more detailed protection of freedom of expression at the international level. It states:
    (1) Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference;
    (2) Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice;
    (3) The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
    (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
    (b) For the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals.
  • The ICCPR imposes a positive obligation on its signatories to ‘take the necessary steps’ to ensure its protection, including adopting ‘laws or other measures as may be necessary’ and providing ‘an effective remedy’ to those whose freedom of expression has been violated.

The UN has established specific institutions which aim to promote and enforce human rights. including freedom of expression, such as the UN Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which coordinates human rights activities in the UN system. The UN General Assembly has also adopted numerous resolutions on freedom of expression and the UN introduced in 1993 a Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression whose office conducts country studies and annual and thematic reports which both hold member states to their commitments and act as guidance in meeting these commitments.