Rebecca MacKinnon

It’s Not Too Late to Save the Internet

The Trump administration is pursuing its own version of internet sovereignty. If Trump obtains a second term, his policies will empower and legitimize efforts by governments around the world to fence off different parts of the internet in service of their own geopolitical and domestic objectives.

Getting to the Source of Infodemics: It’s the Business Model

This report argues that Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s targeted advertising business models, and the opaque algorithmic systems that support them, are the root cause of their failure to staunch the flow of misinformation. This report reinforces the need to adopt a human rights framework for platform accountability.

Rebooting Internet Freedom

Ten years ago, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s landmark speech on internet freedom elevated the promotion of a free and open global internet to a key US foreign policy priority. A decade later, online freedom across the world has declined steadily—including, recently, in America. The new decade represents an opportunity to reverse this trend.

Investors urge companies to use Ranking Digital Rights’ Index to improve their respect for users’ digital rights

A group of investors has endorsed the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) Corporate Accountability Index as an important tool for helping tech companies meet their human rights responsibilities and for helping investors identify digital rights risks.

What Mark Zuckerberg Didn’t Tell Congress

[Commentary] Ranking Digital Rights that has been analyzing and comparing the commitments and policies of internet, mobile and telecommunications companies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy since 2015. Our analysis has consistently found that Facebook discloses fewer details about how it handles users’ personal information than most of its peers. Our forthcoming 2018 Corporate Accountability Index evaluates 12 companies that run some of the world’s most powerful internet and mobile platforms headquartered in the U.S., South Korea, China and Russia.