The digital revolution has offered us all the possibility of freely expressing ourselves on social media without intermediation. At the same time, these new spaces of freedom have witnessed the emergence of negative side effects, such as misinformation, hate speech, and the manipulation of opinion.
The working group on “Reaffirming freedom of expression in the digital space”, chaired by Thaima Samman, founder of the law firm Cabinet Samman, and Pascal Beauvais, Professor of Private Law and Criminal Sciences, director of the Institute of Legal Studies of the Sorbonne and member of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), aims to identify the issues at stake, and to propose ways forward and solutions for reaffirming freedom of expression while respecting other fundamental freedoms and law and public order.
The document below is the interim report on one year’s work, identifying several major challenges and proposing 13 recommendations, including:
Curbing legislative inflation and shifting the focus to the enforcement of existing laws
Rather than passing new laws, the working group recommends better enforcement of existing laws, by coordinating and collaborating with all the players involved, developing and implementing a clear criminal policy and allocating resources to the justice system.
Educating key players and the general public
Educating teachers, judges, journalists and the general public is vital to the informed management of digital freedom of expression issues.
Excluding robots from the scope of freedom of expression
Automated entities like bots cannot benefit from freedom of expression and should be excluded from the blanket protection offered by this fundamental right
Supporting platforms in their content moderation obligation by promoting “trusted third parties”
It is essential not to leave moderation decisions up to digital platforms alone. Moderation needs to involve trusted third parties from a variety of fields, whose legitimacy is built up over time.
Developing a collaborative structure to support the trend of de-judicialization amplified by the DSA
The working group recommends setting up a collaborative structure involving civil society, associations and professionals, to create a framework to help platforms make decisions and constrain them in their moderation.
Better using technology to regulate the constraints on freedom of expression
There are already a range of technologies in place to detect misinformation and manipulation, fact-checking, and moderation, which we need to learn how to use and, when necessary, regulate.
Through this report, the working group stresses the importance of striking a balance between protecting freedom of expression and cracking down on digital abuse. Il makes the case for a collaborative approach between governments, platforms, civil society and lawyers, which meets the complex challenges of the digital space while preserving fundamental rights.
The report is available below in its full version in French, and will soon be available in English.
