Freedom of expression 'shrinking dangerously' – UN expert

GENEVA, Switzerland, June 21 ------ The space for freedom of expression is shrinking dramatically as many countries, abetted by new technologies and digital giants, suppress dissent and as artificial intelligence (AI) runs “amok,” a United Nations expert warned.

Irene Kahn, the UN special rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, said the ongoing conflation of state and corporate interests was weakening that freedom. “Freedom of opinion and expression, a fundamental inalienable human right, has been privatized, monetized, manipulated and unlawfully restricted,” Kahn said.

Delivering her final report to the UN Human Rights Council in the southwestern Swiss city of Geneva, Kahn called out Washington’s efforts to impact how other countries regulate AI and tech giants. “Protecting freedom of expression requires States to uphold human rights,” she said. But “when the world’s most powerful government asserts its political and economic weapons, from tariffs to sanctions, to dissuade other states from regulating its digital platforms and AI companies, then freedom of expression becomes fodder for geopolitics, a commodity for trade,” she added.

Kahn and other special rapporteurs are mandated by the rights council, but do not speak on behalf of the UN. She said that while the digital age had been “transformative,” it had come, “at significant social cost ... [borne] by women threatened by online violence [and] children whose health and safety are endangered online.”

Others feeling the pinch, the special rapporteur added, were “journalists whose livelihoods are destroyed by platforms who refuse to share value, and the public whose capacity to form independent opinions is degraded by information environments polluted by hate and lies.” And AI, Kahn said, was “running amok.” “From the highly political to the deeply personal, nothing is out of bounds for new technologies,” she added, warning that “innovation at speed with no guardrails is a recipe for disaster.”

Kahn also expressed grave concern about the “staggering asymmetry of state and corporate power.” “The reach, resources and influence of large platforms far outstrip that of most governments,” she said. “Major decisions impacting the rights of billions of people are being made by a handful of Big Tech companies and oligarchs, who are accountable to no democratic process, subject to no meaningful oversight, and often face no consequences for their harmful actions.”

More broadly, Kahn slammed backsliding on human rights by a number of countries, highlighting how populist leaders were “weaponizing freedom of expression to incite violence, discrimination and hostilities” against minorities. And even liberal governments, she warned, were increasingly “using counterterrorism and other criminal laws to suppress dissenting voices and peaceful protests.”

Source: manilatimes.net