(No.94) Social media, young people and freedom of expression
What measures can be taken to ensure freedom of expression, access to knowledge and privacy, including for children?
This workshop will seek to explore the relationship between social media, young people and freedom of expression.
It will consider the challenges to both service providers and young people alike and seek to engage the panelists in a debate about the challenges they face and to discuss the practicalities of resolving these.
It will draw on the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states “1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice. 2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.“ (Freedom of expression is also enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.) However, it will be mindful that popular services such as Facebook and YouTube have user rules which cover what a user can and can’t do – for example, Facebook has a statement of rights and responsibilities and YouTube has community guidelines. Services commonly apply age based restrictions to membership of their platforms, and often have specific policies that apply to users under 18.
The session would begin by considering what freedom of expression means to different service providers, before considering what freedom of expression means to young people. The session would include youth panelists from the UK Youth IGF Project, eNACSO, the Nordic Youth IGF and Hong Kong’s Net Mission Ambassadors. The session would hear directly from these youth participants. The results of a survey written and conducted by young people on this topic in preparation for this session would also be presented, enabling the youth delegates to share the voice of their peers and other young people globally. (The survey will be distributed through a large number of networks including the youth dynamic coalition, to young people in, but not limited to, Sweden, the UK, Brazil, Hong Kong and across Africa.)
The session would also offer the youth panelists the opportunity to pose their questions to the industry panelists as part of a chaired debate, giving them the chance to engage on this topic. The session would function as a moderated discussion based around a series of practical questions with the opportunity for questions and discussion from the floor.
The proposed structure is as follows:
1. Understanding freedom of expression from a service provider perspective
Questions to include:
a. Is the principle of freedom of expression important to your service?
b. How do you think that your service offers the opportunity to give users freedom of expression?
c. What are the challenges to you in enabling people to have freedom of expression on your service?
d. What are the legal pressures that you as intermediaries face with regard to freedom of expression?
e. What changes would you like to see to enable people to have access to more information and to participate better?
2. Understanding freedom of expression from a youth perspective
Questions to include:
a. What does freedom of expression online mean to you?
b. From a youth perspective, what are the challenges to protect freedom of expression?
c. What limits your freedom of expression?
d. Do you think these limits are right?
e. How do they impact upon your experiences online?
3. The challenge to civil society participants – how do we and how should we educate users about freedom of expression?
a. Is freedom of expression taught in schools?
b. Net etiquette is taught in schools – to guide users in their behaviour towards each other – but does it help them understand laws surrounding freedom of expression?
c. Are the legal consequences of saying exactly what you want online understood by users?
d. How does this differ country by country?
e. What is the experience of young people from country to country?
f. Is there a global element to how free online citizens are able to freely express what they want?
g. How can we educate users so that they understand the legal issues surrounding free speech online? What role can service providers play? (drawing on recent recommendations from the Council of Europe – to raise users’ awareness, by means of clear and understandable language, of the possible challenges to their human rights and the ways to avoid having a negative impact on other people’s rights when using these services; and provide clear information about the kinds of content or content-sharing or conduct that may be contrary to applicable legal provisions.)
h. Does age impact freedom of expression?
i. Does the requirement on social media to protect children impact on their rights to freedom of expression?
Questions to include:
a. What are the roles and responsibilities of users of social media services as they relate to openness, privacy and security?
b. How is this working in practice?
c. How does this fit with user experiences?
d. What is the user’s role in addressing when someone else’s freedom of expression goes too far?
e. Who arbitrates when someone else’s freedom of expression is in conflict with the rights or reputations of others?
f. How can a community response to this be developed?
g. Is community flagging effective?
h. What is the best way of responding to freedom of expression challenges on social media?
5. Where do we go from here?
Lucinda Fell – Childnet International
Patrick Ryan, Google (Private Sector, WEOG, Confirmed)
Richard Allan, Facebook (Private Sector, WEOG, Confirmed)
Ellen Blackler, Walt Disney (Private Sector, WEOG, Confirmed)
Council of Europe Delegate (WEOG, Confirmed)
Matthew Jackman, Youth Delegate, Member of the UK Youth IGF Project (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Jack Passmore, Youth Delegate, Member of the UK Youth IGF Project (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Rebecca Cawthorne, Youth Delegate, Member of the UK Youth IGF Project (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Nicola Douglas, Youth Delegate, Member of the UK Youth IGF Project (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Bianco Ho, NetMission (Civil Society, Asia Pacific, Confirmed)
Members of the NetMission Youth Delegation (Civil Society, Asia Pacific, Confirmed)
Members of the Nordic Youth IGF Delegation (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Victor Neufeld, eNACSO youth participant (Denmark) confirmed
Anna Fogh Gransoe, eNACSO youth participant (Denmark), confirmed
Dixie Hawtin, Global Partners and Associates (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Janice Richardson, Insafe Network (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Ken Corish, South West Grid for Learning and UK Safer Internet Centre (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Philippa Green, Childnet International and UK Safer Internet Centre (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)
Larry Magid, ConnectSafely.org (Civil Society, WEOG, Confirmed)