By: Yuval Shany
Welcome to the 16th newsletter of the HUJI CyberLaw Program.
This newsletter is published at a time in which the public health crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic shows some signs of abatement, with lockdowns and other movement restrictions gradually giving way to some return to normalcy. A significant feature of the COVID-19 crisis, and one that touches on the work of the CyberLaw program at the Federmann Cyber Security Research Centre, has been the role played by information and misinformation (or disinformation) in shaping the public response and governmental policy concerning the pandemic.
Given the centrality of online platforms in facilitating the speedy and widespread dissemination of data, including on the public health situation and responses thereto, it comes as no surprise that the regulation of online speech and access to information became an important part of the toolkit employed by some governments. This regulation featured prominently in the criticism leveled by civil society against governmental measures taken. At one end of the spectrum, one finds in some corners of the world attempts to exploit the COVID-19 crisis to stifle free speech through online censorship and the criminalization of so-called “Fake News,” often as part of broader campaigns of political repression. At the other end of the spectrum, misinformation disseminated online, underplaying or overplaying the risk posed by Coronavirus or recommending useless or even harmful forms of treatment, does have a real potential to generate confusion and hamper efforts to bring the situation under control.
It is against this background that the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Prof. David Kaye, issued in March 2020 a statement together with the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media calling for a careful approach to regulation of online speech in times of pandemic. Specifically, they called on governments to adopt five sets of measures: (1) to provide truthful and reliable information about the public health situation; (2) to ensure wide Internet access, given the critical importance of access to information to individuals for the safety and ability to exercise their human rights; (3) to facilitate the work of journalists and their access to information; (4) to counter Fake News – with the help of Internet companies – primarily through accurate public messaging, resorting to take-downs and censorship only in exceptional cases, if meeting conditions of necessity and proportionality, and refrain from criminalizing dissemination of misinformation; and (5) to subject surveillance technology to the strictest human rights standards, including the protection of journalistic sources. In other words, the experts proposed to counter misinformation primarily with reliable information, and not with restricted access to information or threats of criminal sanction – a position that favors transparency over informational control by governments.
Developing workable modalities for a responsible yet effective response to harmful misinformation remains a challenge that we at the Program continue to grapple with. For instance, the role and responsibilities of Internet companies – including their duty not to facilitate governmental repression and to attempt to mitigate abusive online conduct – remain to be further fleshed out. The normative and ethical implications of various flagging, virality control, and content moderation technologies and procedures employed by internet companies invite more research, hopefully leading to useful policy recommendations.
This newsletter contains a report on the recent events of our CyberLaw program, including in the area of freedom of online information and dealing with Fake News. It also includes a blog post describing the work of our digital rights legal clinic in connection with the freedom to advertise online. Other items in the newsletter present the work of Federmann Cyber Security Research Center in the field of AI, IOT, fighting cybercrime, and more.
As always, I and the rest of the team at the Federmann Center will be very happy to discuss with you further the topics mentioned in this newsletter and in our other publications, as well as the ways our Program and Center can help confront contemporary challenges in the field of cyber security, digital rights, and regulation of the online environment.
Sincerely,
Yuval Shany
Program Director