Technology & Human Rights

Since its founding in 1999 the Carr Center has developed a unique focus of expertise on the most dangerous and intractable human rights challenges of the new century, including genocide, mass atrocity, state failure, and the ethics and politics of military intervention.

Examining how technological advancements affect the future of human rights.

While recognizing the enormous progress that societies have made since the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, technological advancements have inevitably profound implications for the human rights framework.

From a practical perspective, technology can help move the human rights agenda forward. For instance, the use of satellite data can monitor the flow of displaced people; artificial intelligence can assist with image recognition to gather data on rights abuses; and the use of forensic technology can reconstruct crime scenes and hold perpetrators accountable. Yet for the multitude of areas in which emerging technologies advance the human rights agenda, technological developments have equal capacity to undermine efforts. From authoritarian states monitoring political dissidents by way of surveillance technologies, to the phenomenon of “deepfakes” destabilizing the democratic public sphere, ethical and policy-oriented implications must be taken into consideration with the development of technological innovations.  

Technological advancements also introduce new actors to the human rights framework. The movement has historically focused on the role of the state in ensuring rights and justice. Today, technological advancements and the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, in particular, necessitate interaction, collaboration, and coordination with leaders from business and technology in addition to government.

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Rights, Systematicity, and Misinformation

Rights, Systematicity, and Misinformation

Abstract:

"The ethical impacts of technology can be understood, in part, by examining how it bears on human rights."

In this discussion paper by Matthew MacDonald, Technology & Human Rights Fellow ('22-'23), he discusses the dangers of new technology, misinformation, and how they intersect with human rights. "...It is possible for rights to evolve over time, and for new rights to emerge, in response to changes in the “systematicity” of significant hazards. Hateful misinformation is one hazard which is growing increasingly systematic as a result of technologically-driven changes to the infosystem. This motivates carefully re-examining the limits of an established right (the right to free speech), and seriously evaluating the case for a new right (a distinctive right against misinformation)," he writes.

Read the full paper here.

author/date: Matthew MacDonald | February 27, 2024
teaser text: The ethical impacts of technology can change how human rights evolve over time, with new rights emerging in response to changes in the “systematicity” of significant hazards, such as the rise in hateful misinformation.
Last updated on 02/27/2024

Game Over: The Unintended Consequences of Video Game Moderation

24_foxcahn_enzer.pdf5.6 MB
Game Over: The Unintended Consequences of Video Game Moderation

Abstract:

Online video games are social networks, afflicted with the same speech moderation questions as other social media platforms, like Meta and Twitter, including rampant abuse, harassment, and misinformation. Without effective self-regulation, the United States and other countries have sought to regulate gaming’s messages, content, and user experience. However, video games are not passive media players consume. They are an interactive medium steered by users’ participation and speech. Video games are much more like interactive worlds, like virtual reality platforms, seeking to bring work, parties, dating, play, and everyday life online. If governments choose to regulate video games, they must balance legitimate content moderation needs with the rights of Free Speech, Free Expression, and Free Association. Governments should enact legislation that empowers users’ freedom, like strong privacy and anti-government surveillance laws, instead of restrictive laws to prohibit categories of speech in video games. 

Read the full paper here.

author/date: Albert Fox Cahn & Evan Enzer | Feb. 16, 2024
teaser text: Online video games are social networks – and in addressing the same speech moderation questions as other social media platforms, governments should enact legislation to better empowers users’ freedom, rather than restrictive laws prohibiting speech.
Last updated on 02/16/2024

Technology Dependence & Racial Inequality: Theorizing “Design Thinking” on Human Rights

Technology Dependence & Racial Inequality: Theorizing “Design Thinking” on Human Rights

Abstract:

The exacerbation of racial inequality through the design of technologies remains an understated way in which the evolution of digital technologies impacts our human rights. As we continue to consider the impacts of modern technology on our human rights in areas such as privacy, freedom of expression, etc., we must also increasingly consider the interaction between digital technologies and forms of racial inequality. We continue to see how people of certain races are subjected to prejudicial consequences and outcomes of the design and deployment of digital technologies. This makes it relevant to examine a racial (in)equality perspective of advancing a “human rights by design” agenda for digital technologies. The conversations about racial inequality and digital technologies have also not specifically centered the discourse from a dependence perspective. This gave cause for the paper which links the development of digital technologies to thoughts about dependence through examining the racial inequality and discrimination discourse that has emerged because of the development and deployment of digital technologies. Perhaps racial inequality is also exacerbated by dependence on digital technologies developed in settings and cultures that give little recognition to the need to include all races in the design and deployment of digital technologies. Thoughts about the obligation of tech companies to imply key human rights standards such as non-discrimination and equality in the design stages of digital technologies further provides a background for the elaboration of the idea that “design thinking” can promote tech designing in a manner that incorporates safeguards against racial discrimination based on human rights standards.

Read the paper.

author/date: Nnenna Ifeanyi-Ajufo | October 25, 2023
teaser text: As we consider the impacts of modern technology on human rights in areas such as privacy and freedom of expression, we must also consider the interaction between technology and racial inequality.
Last updated on 10/25/2023
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“Global civil society and transnational advocacy networks have played an important role in social movements and struggles for social change. Looking ahead, these movements need to coalesce around the impact of technology on society, in particular harnessing the promise, challenging the perils, and looking at maintaining public and private spheres that respect creativity, autonomy, diversity, and freedom of thought and expression.”

- Sushma Raman