EFF Free Internet Principles

The International Coalition of Human Rights Organizations, with the participation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) following the meeting in Manila (Philippines), adopted the document entitled “Manila Principles on Internet Responsibility” - a fundamental treaty that aims to guarantee freedom of speech and innovation on the Internet.

“All communications on the Internet are carried out through intermediaries: Internet providers, social networks, search engines, etc. Intermediaries often seize content, and their rules of work are often confused, rigid and contradictory. This leads to censorship and restriction of human rights, ”said EFF senior analyst for global politics Jeremy Malcolm, who was involved in developing the principles. “Our goal is to protect freedom of expression for all users with the help of protective measures and best practices in response to requests to remove content.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Indian Internet Community Center, Article 19 and other international organizations presented the principles of the free Internet yesterday at RightsCon, a major Internet and human rights conference in Manila. The framework agreement contains clear and fair requirements for requests for deletion of information, as well as details on how to minimize the damage from such actions. For example, if some content is prohibited to be distributed in the territory of a particular country or region, then this restriction should affect only that particular territory. The principles also require the adoption of laws that protect intermediaries from liability for the content of third parties. This encourages the creation of platforms where online discussions and controversies occur on controversial topics.

“For various reasons, people ask for messages to be removed from the Internet, these reasons are good or bad and apply to a multitude of local and national laws. In such a situation, it is very easy to get under the fire of important, legitimate content, says Jyoti Panday from the Center for the Internet community of India. “We hope that these principles will enable everyone - government services, providers and society - to strike back when there is a curtailment of freedom of expression on the Internet.”
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The Manila Principles and related documents are published at https://www.manilaprinciples.org/ , where other organizations and members of the public can leave their signatures on the document.