ADC and Observacom launch campaign “Your rights on the Internet”

On August 9, the Association for Civil Rights and the Regulation, Media and Convergence Observatory (OBSERVACOM) launched #TusDerechosEnInternet (Your rights on the Internet), a campaign that seeks to inform and raise awareness among social media users about content moderation and their rights on platforms.

Our project leader Eduardo Ferreyra spoke at the event, remarking that “the flow of discourse through the web is strongly influenced and conditioned by the rules companies impose on content dissemination…  what can and cannot be seen, what material is and is not removed, what publications have their visibility increased or reduced, and what information is deemed as false or dubious. All these actions are carried out and stipulated in their content moderation policy.” 

“The campaign is targeted at the general public. Anyone who sees their rights affected, either by the design or the implementation of a content moderation policy, is surely going to find a lot of useful information in this initiative,” Ferreyra further explained.

Our representative then referred to some of the challenges that the issue poses: “Due to the immense power that tech giants have over online content flows, the grounds on which these rules are created and enforced is a problem that arises for civil society and people interested in the defense of human rights.”

On the other hand, Ferreyra pointed out that, on many occasions, moderation rules are applied “arbitrarily, unevenly, with little information of their rationale.” Sometimes, the very content of the rules “are in tension or conflict with international human rights standards.” Therefore, “it ought to be emphasized that although content moderation policies are of legitimate private interest, they must be aligned with such HR principles.”

 Did you miss the launch of our campaign? Click here to relive it.