IGF 2021 Town Hall #38 The New Santa Clara Principles

Time
Wednesday, 8th December, 2021 (15:30 UTC) - Wednesday, 8th December, 2021 (16:30 UTC)
Room
Hall A3
Issue(s)

Content moderation and human rights compliance: How to ensure that government regulation, self-regulation and co-regulation approaches to content moderation are compliant with human rights frameworks, are transparent and accountable, and enable a safe, united and inclusive Internet?
Protecting consumer rights: What regulatory approaches are/could be effective in upholding consumer rights, offering adequate remedies for rights violations, and eliminating unfair and deceptive practices from the part of Internet companies?

Birds of a Feather - Auditorium - 60 Min

Description

The purpose of this session is to present the findings from our yearlong global consultation process aimed at advancing the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation, which seek to hold companies accountable by pushing them to publish numbers, notify users of content decisions, and ensure that appeals (due process) are available in every instance.

Throughout the past few years, as tech companies have taken on an increasingly complicated role in policing the world’s speech, the demand for greater transparency in content moderation has grown—while at the same time, and particularly during the pandemic, the opacity with which the world’s largest platforms make certain policy and moderation decisions seems to be growing as well.

In 2020, a coalition of 11 organizations from several countries embarked on a consultation process aimed at improving the Principles. We received written submissions and/or spoke with groups and individuals from varying backgrounds from more than 40 countries. We will soon issue a report with our findings, and launch a set of revised principles for the next era.

As the situation is so frequently changing, we would like to use this session as an opportunity to hear from various stakeholders on the applicability of the Principles in their cultural context, as well as the potential for the Principles to be utilized in regulatory regimes. We are also interested in fomenting open discussion on furthering transparency demands to companies.

We have been working together online for the past three years, so we're fairly practiced at doing this well. We will utilize Zoom (or equivalent) to facilitate virtual discussion, and will reach out on social media in advance of the discussion to ensure broad participation in the conversation, both prior to and during.

Organizers

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Jillian C. York, Electronic Frontier Foundation, non-governmental actor, Europe David Greene, Electronic Frontier Foundation, non-governmental actor, USA Nathalie Maréchal, Ranking Digital Rights, non-governmental/academic actor, USA/Europe

Speakers

Jillian C. York, Electronic Frontier Foundation, non-governmental actor, Europe David Greene, Electronic Frontier Foundation, non-governmental actor, USA Nathalie Maréchal, Ranking Digital Rights, non-governmental/academic actor, USA/Europe Grecia Macias, R3D, non-governmental actor, Latin America Barbara Dockalova, Article 19, non-governmental actor, Europe Spandana Singh, Open Technology Institute, non-governmental actor, USA

Onsite Moderator

Jillian C. York

Online Moderator

David Greene

Rapporteur

Nathalie Maréchal

SDGs

16.10
16.6
16.7
16.8

Targets: The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability are designed to promote access to justice for all in a corporate-controlled speech environment.