Human Rights Are Not A Bug Upgrading Governance for an Equitable Internet

In this comprehensive, field-setting report published with the support of the Ford Foundation, Niels ten Oever, a postdoctoral researcher in internet infrastructure at the University of Amsterdam, unpacks and looks at the human consequences of these governance flaws, from speed and access to security and privacy of online information. The report details how these flaws especially impact those who are already subject to surveillance or structural inequities, such as an activist texting meeting times on WhatsApp, or a low-income senior looking for a vaccine appointment.

Crucially, the report offers recommendations to civil society, corporations, governments, and academics on how to align internet governance with the public interest, including calling on governance organizations to employ human rights impact assessments into the evaluations of norms and standards. The report reframes the internet user as a citizen with rights, not as customers to be bought and sold, and presses governance institutions to make the rights and impact on citizens and society central in the design, standardization, and operation of the internet.