Human and civil rights and freedoms in the digital age: States vs. IT giants

 
PIIS160565900030998-1-1
DOI10.61205/S160565900030998-1
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Occupation: Dean, Faculty of Law, HSE University
Affiliation: HSE University
Address: Russian Federation,
Journal nameJournal of Russian Law
Edition
Abstract

The rapid digitalization of all spheres of society has led to the transformation in the digital environment of existing human and civil rights and freedoms. Digitalization can not only change the specifics and conditions for the realization of basic rights, but also, and more importantly, affect their content, giving rights and freedoms a new (additional) meaning. But while expanding opportunities for the realization of basic rights and freedoms, digitalization at the same time fatally provides additional ways to infringe upon them. Digitalization has also resulted in the emergence of new rights, such as the right to the Internet, which has a special nature. 

In the author's opinion, the main problem of realizing human and civil rights and freedoms in the digital space is the increasing influence of IT Giants, which are trying to oppose states. All activities of IT Giants are motivated primarily by the goal of maximizing profits and increasing their political influence, and therefore the weak attention of IT Giants to human rights and freedoms is one of the biggest challenges. Initially (and by its nature) private-law relations of IT companies with users of their services have turned into quasi-public relations with clearly unequal parties. Where the “weak” party is largely dependent on the corporate rules of the “strong” party. This situation requires adequate response from the states. This article considers the key areas of such actions: ensuring data privacy; protection against personal data breaches; combating content censorship and biased moderation; regulating the use of recommendation algorithms; combating the spread of illegal content; and "landing" as one of the levers of influence to ensure digital sovereignty.

Keywordshuman rights and freedoms; IT Giants; recommender algorithms; data breaches; digital transformation.
Received23.05.2024
Publication date24.07.2024
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