Kategorie: Humans

by Alia Al Ghussain, Campaigner, Amnesty Tech 

Facebook is engulfed in the biggest crisis to hit the company since the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The explosive revelations by whistle-blower Frances Haugen, is that Facebook’s leadership refused to make changes that would make their platforms safer because they “put their immense profits before people”.

The claims by Haugen first published in the Wall Street Journal’s “Facebook Files” investigation, and in her subsequent testimony to US Congress last week, included:

• Facebook’s plans to attract more teens to the platform despite internal research showing that Instagram can have serious negative effects on the mental health of teen girls.
• The spread of anti-vaccine misinformation on Facebook
• Facebook’s role in the spread of disinformation in developing countries
• Algorithm changes which Facebook’s own research found were fuelling the spread of misinformation, toxicity, and violent content
• A system built by Facebook which exempts high-profile users from some or all its rules, allowing them to post potentially harmful content without consequence

What does this have to do with surveillance advertising?

While these issues may seem to be separate – ultimately, they all stem from Facebook’s need to maintain user engagement and keep people on its platforms.  

This is driven by Facebook’s use of surveillance advertising, which is at the heart of its business model. To micro-target users with ads, Facebook must find out as much as possible about them – their behaviours, relationships, and vulnerabilities by keeping users engaged and collecting more data about them. The company uses constant surveillance of online activities, far beyond activity within the company’s own platforms, to gather data, decide what information users see, and use these insights to sell advertising. More engagement equals more data equals more ad dollars.

The result is that its algorithms amplify extreme, divisive, and harmful content – because this is what keeps users engaged and online. The latest revelations echo extensive previous research documenting this problem on Facebook and other social media platforms, particularly YouTube.

Global Harms

Facebook strongly contests the claims by Frances Haugen , including in a blog post by Mark Zuckerberg stating that “the idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being …[is] just not true”.  

Zuckerberg said he is proud of the impact Facebook has had on the world. Yet Frances Haugen – and other brave whistle-blowers such as Sophie Zhang – have told another story.

The company has been responsible for the spread of harmful and divisive content across the world – and this risk is greatly heightened in countries in the Global South where Facebook is synonymous with the internet.

Facebook’s algorithms ability to push out extreme content has already had devastating impacts in the Global South. For example, an independent assessment commissioned by Facebook itself,, as well as a UN fact-finding report, have shown that the platform played a key role in fomenting violence against the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Similarly, another human rights impact assessment commissioned by Facebook showed that the platform had a role in fuelling ethnic violence in Sri Lanka.  

However, according to Facebook’s own research disclosed by Frances Haugen, just 13% of staff time tracking misinformation is focused on places other than the US.

Calling for accountability

The Facebook Files provide further support for what Amnesty and many others have long been saying – Facebook’s surveillance-based business model is leading to tangible human rights harms. The company needs users to stay on the platform for as long as possible, to continue to gather data and then micro-target them with ads. This is Facebook’s main source of profit – and it’s why Amnesty International is calling for a ban on surveillance advertising.

During her Senate testimony, Frances Haugen said “Until the incentives change, Facebook will not change.” Advertising that does not rely on invasive tracking and profiling will mean that Facebook no longer has the impetus to prioritize user engagement and invasive surveillance above everything else – including human rights.

Facebook won’t regulate itself – it has the internal research, it knows about the harms, and it continues the same practices due to its unrelenting drive for engagement and growth. This crisis is being billed as Big Tech’s “Big Tobacco” moment We now need to see action from governments to tackle this harm by:

• Stopping surveillance for profit: Banning surveillance advertising that relies on invasive tracking and the profiling of users for profit.
•  Turning off the manipulation machine: Ensuring control and independent oversight of algorithms behind the platforms to limit the amplification of disinformation, hate speech and other harmful content
• Putting people back in charge: Challenging the dominance of Big Tech companies to ensure people can choose truly rights-respecting alternatives.

  Right now there is a huge opportunity to implement meaningful regulation in the EU, through the Digital Services Act (DSA). It is crucial that lawmakers take this moment to force Facebook, and other Big Tech platforms, to overhaul their business model, assuring platform users that their human rights will be protected and respected.

  Until governments show the political will to step in and hold Big Tech accountable, the harms of the toxic surveillance-based business model will continue to spill into the offline world. As Frances Haugen said, “We can do better”.

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To end the rampant impunity for human rights violations committed by police across many parts of Latin America and Caribbean, governments must address this as a structural issue, applying appropriate protocols for investigation, scrutinizing the role of commanding officers, and working with civil society to introduce effective and independent accountability mechanisms, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.

Police in the spotlight: Towards police accountability for human rights violations in the Americas  summarizes the findings of a virtual regional conference supported by OSF Foundations, Amnesty International, the University of Essex Human Rights Centre and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and attended by almost 100 activists, academics, and public officials in January 2021.

“Our research over several years in Latin America and the Caribbean demonstrates that human rights violations by the police across the region are the norm, not an exception. The paper we launch today proposes five concrete approaches to ending impunity for these abuses. Our hope is it will be used as a practical guide for government officials and human rights practitioners alike, who want to find tangible ways to build a more just region.” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

The five key recommendations for states to address human rights violations by police across the region are: to introduce independent and effective mechanisms for police supervision and accountability; to acknowledge and strengthen the crucial role of civil society organizations and victims’ groups in police monitoring and accountability systems; to ensure that investigations into possible unlawful deaths at the hands of police are conducted in accordance with the Minnesota Protocol; to address unlawful police violence as a structural issue; and to set out clearly in laws and regulations the responsibility of commanding officers and other superiors for unlawful police violence.

Our research over several years in Latin America and the Caribbean demonstrates that human rights violations by the police across the region are the norm, not an exception

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

“None of these recommendations can be effective in isolation. But in combination, and with the wealth of determination and experience that exists in Latin America and the Caribbean, they can form a solid roadmap towards accountable, effective policing that protects the human rights of everyone. By following them, states can create a region where police abuses are an outlier rather than a trend,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas.

In recent years, Amnesty International has documented police using unlawful force to deter and disperse demonstrators in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela; to enforce restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic; and in operations to control crime. Most of those suspected of criminal responsibility for these human rights violations enjoy almost total impunity. Indeed, in places such as Rio de Janeiro, the police are often a law unto themselves, investigating, detaining and sentencing people to death. Elsewhere, El Salvador not only has the highest homicide rate in the world, but also the highest rate of killings by police, which continue to rise.

Based on a longer paper compiled in Spanish, the new report notes that victims of excessive or otherwise unlawful use of force by police in Latin America and the Caribbean are disproportionately from communities who face structural discrimination, such as Indigenous and Afro-descendant people, migrants and refugees, those living in urban low-income neighbourhoods and LGBTIQ+ people.

While women may not be the direct targets of most police killings, they are often left to pick up the pieces when a relative is killed or sustains life-changing injuries. Women are also direct targets of gender-based violence in countries such as Mexico, for example, where police and the armed forces frequently subject women to sexual violence in detention and during interrogation. Moreover, certain groups of women, such as sex workers, are especially targeted for torture and ill-treatment in a number of countries, including the Dominican Republic.

By following these recommendations, states can create a region where police abuses are an outlier rather than a trend

<strong>Erika Guevara-Rosas, </strong>Americas director at Amnesty International

Impunity for police abuses often persists because investigations into these crimes are not independent, do not meet minimum standards of diligence and do not involve victims, their families and civil society. Many investigations in Brazil have been undermined by the fact that forensic and ballistic services are controlled by the police, while the absence of independent investigations in Colombia has allowed evidence to be manipulated so that unlawful killings are justified as combat casualties – a phenomenon known as “false positives”.

A widespread failure to meet minimum standards for effective investigations has led to delayed investigations and in places such as Brazil, Jamaica and Nicaragua, while victims and their families in many countries face numerous obstacles in accessing information about the progress of investigations into unlawful use of force by police, let alone participating in the process.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Duncan Tucker: duncan.tucker@amnesty.org

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In the context of the second anniversary of the social unrest in Chile, Amnesty International has submitted a report to the National Prosecutor’s Office compiling international standards on the criminal responsibility of Carabineros commanders in the context of the crimes committed during the response to the protests.

“Two years ago, thousands of people in Chile courageously took to the streets to demand greater equality and human rights, such as a decent pension, housing, education and quality public health. The authorities’ response was violent repression and criminalization of social protest, through excessive use of force, and discriminatory and disproportionate use of pre-trial detention, among other serious human rights violations – a situation that, to date, the government has persisted in denying or minimizing,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has shown that the means and techniques put in place within the Carabineros enabled, promoted or tolerated the excessive use of force. However, no strategic commander has been prosecuted to date, and many of the same officials who are alleged to have committed human rights violations are still, to this day, in their posts in charge of controlling the protests. On this anniversary, Amnesty International reiterates that justice and the structural reform of the Carabineros are fundamental steps to ensure that these human rights violations do not happen again.

“Thousands of victims could tell a different story today were it not for the deliberate oversight of Carabineros commanders who allowed acts of torture and ill-treatment against demonstrators in order to disperse them at all costs or detain them without the necessary guarantees. The authorities knew what was happening and failed to act decisively to prevent repetition of such acts. Two years on from the unrest, investigations have made little progress. The Prosecutor’s Office must investigate the responsibility of the entire chain of command, right up to the highest level, without delay. “We hope that this report will help to end this prolonged and unacceptable impunity,” said Ana Piquer, executive director of Amnesty International Chile.

The authorities’ response was violent repression and criminalization of social protest

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International

Deliberate oversight and impunity

The report submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office analyses the individual criminal responsibility of those superiors who failed to prevent or report the excessive and disproportionate use of force by members of the institution.

There has been little or no administrative accountability on the part of the relevant superiors for the oversight that has cost the lives and safety of so many people, in addition to the poor functioning of internal control mechanisms after the commission of the crimes and human rights violations. These commanders also deliberately obstructed access to information to the Prosecutor’s Office and allowed impunity within the institution – for example, in cases such as those of Alex Núñez, Gustavo Gatica and Fabiola Campillai.

This environment of bias and impunity is clear when one notes that, two years after the widespread repressive response by the Carabineros, the then Director of Order and Security has not only not been investigated for his role and responsibility during the social unrest but has been promoted to the top post of the institution as Director General. The former Director General was not removed from his post for his possible responsibility for the human rights violations, including killings, torture and other ill-treatment documented in the organization’s report.

This institutional culture of impunity was supported by the inflammatory discourse of the Executive that demonized the protest by characterizing the demonstrators as a powerful, organized and ruthless enemy, which promoted and made possible the various crimes committed during the unrest. To this day, disproportionate use of force continues to be repeated, and the government maintains a discourse of unrestricted support for the Carabineros, even going as far as to deny the seriousness of what happened two years ago or the need to address it in a structural manner.

Urgent reform of the Carabineros

As Amnesty International has indicated, a broad and deep reform of the Chilean Carabineros institution is needed, at a normative and cultural level, to ensure that law enforcement agencies strictly follow international standards on the use of force.

It is for this reason that, in the context of the second anniversary of the social unrest, Amnesty International also launched the report Police in the spotlight: Towards police accountability for human rights violations in the Americas, the result of research that compiled experiences from across the region – including Chile – in collaboration with more than 100 representatives from civil society, academia, public officials and experts on the issue.

Two years on from the unrest, investigations have made little progress

Ana Piquer, executive director of Amnesty International Chile

This report reminds us that the only way to put an end to police abuse is to engage in a process of structural reform of these institutions through a broad dialogue with civil society that is capable of identifying patterns of violence and formulating independent, transparent and participatory mechanisms of investigation and accountability, including effective command responsibility.

In this regard, the report proposes the five key points referred to in its title: first, independent and effective police monitoring mechanisms; second, mechanisms for meaningful participation of civil society and victims’ organizations; third, appropriate protocols for investigating police abuse; fourth, addressing illegal policing as a structural issue; and fifth, ensuring the accountability of senior commanders and those above.

Additional information:

Amnesty International has documented how, during the massive demonstrations in October 2019, the Chilean Carabineros committed serious and widespread human rights violations, especially of the right to personal safety, and possible crimes under international law. According to figures from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Institute of Human Rights up to March 2021, there have been more than 8,000 victims of state violence and more than 400 cases of eye trauma. These widespread violations demonstrate a pattern of conduct that reveals an intention to harm demonstrators in order to silence protest, or else assuming such harm as a necessary evil. The scale and consistency of the human rights violations and possible crimes under international law committed could have been avoided, but the strategic and operational commanders of the police institution deliberately failed to implement certain measures within their power.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Ilsen Jara: ilsen.jara@amnistia.cl

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Spokespeople available 

Responding to the news that the European Parliament’s Daphne Caruana Prize for Journalism has been awarded to the Forbidden Stories Consortium, of which Amnesty International was the technical partner, for the Pegasus Project which exposed the systematic targeting of human rights activists, journalists and lawyers with surveillance software, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office said:

“The Pegasus Project revealed that journalists, activists, and lawyers around the world are being targeted by governments who want to silence and intimidate them. This prize provides important recognition for those whose work is under attack, and those journalists and technologists who brought the shady practices of surveillance companies and their tools to light.”

Eve Geddie

Harassment, intimidation and attacks on journalists, especially those reporting on sensitive topics such as corruption, rights violations and management of the pandemic, have become more commonplace globally. Across the EU, surveillance, defamation lawsuits, and other provisions restricting, or criminalising speech are increasingly used to intimidate critical voices into silence.

“It’s vital that EU countries address these abuses, protect journalists and rights defenders, and ensure robust and meaningful regulation over the cybersurveillance industry both at home and abroad. Victims of unlawful targeted surveillance must be provided with effective remedy and perpetrators for the violations – including Governments using Pegasus spyware – should be held to account,” said Eve Geddie.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:     

Alison Abrahams on alison.abrahams@amnesty.org or +32 483 680 812     

Out of hours contact details     

+44 20 7413 5566     

email: press@amnesty.org      

twitter: @amnestypress    

The award ceremony will be held 12.00 CET on Thursday, 14 October 2021 in the Press Center of the European Parliament prize and hosted by the President of the European Parliament.

Amnesty International’s recommendations to the European Union on ending unlawful targeted surveillance

Daphne Caruana prize

Uncovering the Iceberg: The Digital Surveillance Crisis Wrought by States and the Private Sector

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Responding to today’s ruling by the Administrative Tribunal in Algiers accepting the government’s arbitrary request to dissolve the well-known Algerian civil society organization, the Youth Action Rally (Rassemblement Actions Jeunesse -RAJ), which played a prominent role in the Hirak protest movement, Amna Guellali, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International said: 

“The decision to dissolve the Youth Action Rally (RAJ) is a devastating blow for human rights in Algeria. It is also an alarming indicator of the authorities’ determination to tighten their crackdown on independent activism and suppress the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. Shutting down civil society organizations is one of the severest restrictions on the right to freedom of association. Doing it in a bid to silence critics and crush dissent is unlawful and unacceptable.”

Background

On 26 May 2021, the Ministry of Interior notified RAJ that it had requested its dissolution on the grounds that the organization’s activities violated Algeria’s law governing associations. According to one of RAJ’s members, the activities involved included holding discussions with other civil society activists at its headquarters in Algiers, organizing protests, as well as being in contact with national and international NGOs. All these activities are protected under the right to freedom of association and are clearly in line with the rights established under the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. In 2019 and 2020, 11 members of RAJ were arrested, prosecuted and nine were arbitrarily detained simply for peacefully protesting or expressing their views online. 

Since RAJ was established, the organization has worked to foster human rights in Algeria, playing a pivotal role in education, promotion of human rights and more recently, calling for a democratic process and radical political change during the Hirak protests. In a press release issued today, RAJ said that they will appeal the decision.  

The dissolution of an organization is among the severest restrictions on the right to freedom of association, protected under article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It may only be used when there is a clear and imminent threat to, for example, national security or public order, and it must be proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued and only used when less restrictive means would be insufficient.

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