On March 23, 2021 Professor David Kaye testified before the House of Lords of the UK Parliament to address issues related to freedom of expression online. The Communications and Digital Committee of the House of Lords is conducting an inquiry to “investigate how public policy can best protect the right to freedom of expression on the internet and how that right should be balanced with other priorities.”
You can watch the hearing here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/e4224065-1469-4381-87b9-3b031f81b15f
Professor Kaye gave an overview of his perspectives on government regulation of freedom of expression in the online environment. He highlighted that “government regulation in this area must first and foremost focus on breaking down the opacity of this industry, if we can call it a single industry.” Even though “many of the companies are different and are operating in different spaces, they are all operating in this space of dealing with user generated content, and we know very little -even researchers- on how they operate”. I would put as a priority transparency obligations of the companies, because that enables you as legislators to understand what exactly the harms are that you are dealing with. The second part is that rules related to content should be approached with the outmost caution […] On the one hand, […] we don’t want to see governments become the censors of speech […] and at the same time not to incentivize companies to take down fully legitimate content […] Finally, because this is in the context of the democratic traditions of the UK there is a modeling role that some countries I think need to be mindful of, and I would put the UK in that category, and that is that many governments around the world are -as we say in the US- ‘champing at the bit’ in order to regulate this space, and I would encourage a global thought about what UK regulations might mean for the global.”
Professor Kaye also addressed the following questions:
- How do platforms’ business models shape their approach to freedom of expression?
- What practical design measures should we look at as a Committee to protect Human Rights and encourage good digital citizenship? and, where specifically should legislation play a role in relation with the design of platforms?
- How competition can improve these issues?
- The Committee has proposed to bring together all the regulatory and public policy tools related to freedom of expression online into one to see the future, to see the harms that are coming down the road and create comprehensive policy solutions to them, do you see any jurisdiction in the world beginning to this? or is still aspirational? or is it a bad idea?
- What international examples on platform regulation should we be looking at to emulate or who should we avoid?
- In the context of redress, what are your opinions on Facebook’s Oversight Board?
- What should companies do, and what is their responsibility, when a government passes a regulation that might infringe users’ rights?