Framing human rights: exploring storytelling within internet companies

ABSTRACT

This article explores human rights storytelling within two of the dominant internet companies, Google and Facebook. Based on interview with company staff as well as analysis of publicly available statements, the article examines how human rights are framed, made sense of and translated into company norms, products, and governance structures. The paper argues that the companies’ framing in many respects resembles that of the United States’ online freedom agenda, celebrating the liberating power of the internet and perceiving human rights as primarily safeguards against repressive governments. The companies see freedom of expression as part of their DNA and do not perceive any contradiction between this standard and business practices that may impact negatively on users’ freedom of expression, such as terms of service enforcement. Likewise, there is no sense of conflict between the online business model and their users’ right to privacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Human rights
• Facebook
• Google
• privacy
• freedom of expression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Rikke Frank Jørgensen is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, focusing on the interface between technology and human rights [email: [email protected]].

Notes

1 The declaration was published in 1996 by Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow, available at: https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence.

2 Habermas’ ideal model of the public sphere has met strong criticism for being too rationalistic and for excluding women and private matters of public concern. It is often overlooked that Habermas later work address the public sphere as a highly complex network branching into a multitude of arenas (Habermas, 1996).

3 In contrast to this overall conclusion, many empirical examples speak to the way communication technology have empowered actors and groups at local level. See Mackinnon (2012).

4 See Article 12 and 17 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The two rights are also enshrined in a number of regional conventions such as the European Convention on Human Right and the American Convention on Human Rights. Within EU countries, the right to privacy and data protection is protected as part of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, and the General Data Protection Regulation.

5 The ruling mandates Google to de-index search results in specific cases. See http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/files/factsheets/factsheet_data_protection_en.pdf.

6 Zuckerberg quoted in Time (Grossman) 2014, available at http://time.com/facebook-world-plan/.

7 Zuckerberg quoted in Time (Grossman) 2014, available at http://time.com/facebook-world-plan/.

8 Page quoted in Zeit online, 2015, available at: http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2015-05/larry-page-google-inventor/seite-4.

9 For the assessment of Google see: https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/sites/default/files/GNI%20Assessments%20Public%20Report.pdf. The assessment of Facebook is not public as of June 2016.

10 https://rankingdigitalrights.org/.

11 http://search.fb.com.

12 Facebook, ‘Facebook Q2 2014 earnings call’ (2014). Zuckerberg Transcripts. Paper 152.

13 Zuckerberg, Mark, ‘Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg’ (2014). Zuckerberg Transcripts. Paper 157.

14 The initiative has been criticized for violating net neutrality and for Facebook's role in determining what websites users of the service may access.

15 Zuckerberg quoted in Bloomberg Business, 19 February 2015.

16 See for example, Susan Crawford Less than Zero, 7 January at: https://backchannel.com/less-than-zero-199bcb05a868#.6y9avwesk.

17 Olivan quoted in Time (Grossman) 2014, available at http://time.com/facebook-world-plan/.

18 Freedom of expression: How Google sees the world, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IKm6YQ_7wc.

19 https://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/policies.html.

20 https://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/policies.html.

21 https://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/ (no. 6).

22 https://www.google.com/loon/.

23 These are established data protection principles and part of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

24 Zuckerberg quoted in Bloomberg Business, 19 February 2015.

25 Panel on the Future of Free Speech at the Aspen Ideas Festival, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LH-dt72RTM.

26 Panel at Re:publica 2013, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gSTwaYVERo.

27 https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/.

28 http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cip/netfreedom/index.htm.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Sapere Aude program of Det Frie Forskningsråd [grant number DFF-4089-00188].