Global Network Initiative

🔶 Safeguarding Rights in Unstable Times (https://lnkd.in/gRRWrCzU) 2025 appears likely to be marked by instability. In just these first three months, humanitarian crises have lurched forward from Gaza to Myanmar to Sudan, the Trump Administration has begun to significantly reorient US domestic and foreign policy, and governments around the world have signaled a shift from a safety-focused approach to AI, to one driven by acceleration and geopolitical competition. In the midst of this uncertainty, GNI's multistakeholder network has been crucial in helping us make sense of these developments.  📨 Check your inboxes for GNI's latest newsletter for updates on our AI and internet governance related work, policy advocacy in South and East Asia, reflections on RightsCon 2025, new members, and more. 🔔 Make sure to check out the Members' Bulletin Board to get up-to-speed on all the exciting and incredible work that GNI members are doing! Telenor ARIJ Network Vivek Krishnamurthy SAFEnet - Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network Sarasin & Partners LLP 7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media Center for Democracy & Technology WHAT TO FIX

📢 NEW EVENT ALERT Rights & Risks: Exploring Risk Management under the DSA On July 23, GNI and the Oversight Board will co-host an invite-only, multistakeholder breakfast roundtable at the Oversight Board’s office in San Francisco, on the margins of #TrustCon2025. This gathering will focus on how risk assessments under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) can be implemented in ways that are cohesive, effective, and grounded in rights-based approaches. 🔍 GNI will share insights from its recent European Rights & Risks Stakeholder Engagement Forum with DTSP, which convened 75+ experts to explore systemic risk under the DSA. 🗣️ The Oversight Board will highlight how freedom of expression can remain central while addressing systemic harms on Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines (VLOPs/VLOSEs). Participants will reflect on their experiences navigating rights and risks—and help shape emerging global norms. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eUakhgaE #DigitalServicesAct #HumanRights #PlatformGovernance #FreedomOfExpression #TrustCon #TechPolicy

🚨 Advancing Responsible AI & Platform Safety in the EU!! 👏 🖥️ As platforms prepare their annual #DSA systemic risk assessments🧷, the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and the Digital Trust and Safety Partnership (DTSP) have released a timely summary from the 2025 European Rights & Risks Forum in Brussels. 💼In my role leading AI Safety Partnerships, I deeply value #GNI and #DTSP’s leadership in fostering open, multi-stakeholder dialogue. Their work is essential in aligning #platforms, civil #society, and #regulators around shared goals: user #protection, rights #preservation, and #trustworthy digital #ecosystems. ⚖️ Summarized takeaways: 1️⃣ Human rights at the core of risk assessment 2️⃣ Product design and platform functionality as risk factors 3️⃣ Data-driven evaluation and continuous learning 4️⃣ Clarifying DSA audits and regulatory coherence 5️⃣ Strengthening civil society engagement 🔎 Read the summary report here 👇 https://lnkd.in/djycKHpt @Hilary R. David Sullivan #AIandSafety #DigitalServicesAct #ResponsibleAI #TrustAndSafety #PlatformGovernance #HumanRights #GNI #DTSP #StakeholderEngagement #DSA #SafetyPartnerships

At this year’s “European Rights & Risks Stakeholder Engagement Forum” hosted by Global Network Initiative & Digital Trust and Safety Partnership in Brussels, I discussed key #DSA Risk Assessment developments, from evolving methodologies to the urgent need for more transparency and stronger safeguards for fundamental rights. Many thanks for having me and an inspiring event bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders! Looking forward to continuing these conversations. 📝 A published summary of the event, capturing the current state of play, can be found here: https://lnkd.in/e_tpDQ77

EU Rights and Risks Forum Report Out Now! DTSP and the Global Network Initiative have published the 2025 Summary of the European Rights & Risks: Stakeholder Engagement Forum, held in Brussels this June. As platforms conduct their third round of risk assessments under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), this report offers key learnings and actionable recommendations from over 75 participants across industry, civil society, and academia. 📌 Highlights include: - Guarding against rights-infringing regulatory overreach - Strengthening regulatory coherence across frameworks - Embedding human rights in risk assessments - Addressing product design and proportionality - Improving stakeholder engagement and audit clarity 📄 Read the full report → https://lnkd.in/gx5fJAyS #DSA #RiskAssessment #HumanRights #DigitalRegulation #TechPolicy #Multistakeholder #PlatformGovernance

EU Rights and Risks Forum Report Out Now! GNI and Digital Trust and Safety Partnership have published the 2025 Summary of the European Rights & Risks: Stakeholder Engagement Forum, held in Brussels this June. As platforms conduct their third round of risk assessments under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), this report offers key learnings and actionable recommendations from over 75 participants across industry, civil society, and academia. 📌 Highlights include: - Guarding against rights-infringing regulatory overreach - Strengthening regulatory coherence across frameworks - Embedding human rights in risk assessments - Addressing product design and proportionality - Improving stakeholder engagement and audit clarity 📄 Read the full report → https://lnkd.in/gaCh9XaE

📢 Centring Human Rights in Online Risk Regulation: Multistakeholder Insights from Brussels: https://lnkd.in/eMHPJ2Vq On June 3, 2025, GNI, in partnership with DTSP, hosted an event in Brussels to discuss how human rights should be at the core of digital policy frameworks Business & Human Rights. The event brought together regulators, civil society, academics, industry, and international institutions Resource Centre. Key challenges identified included: 🔍 Ambiguity in defining risk metrics 🔍 Politicization in researcher vetting processes 🔍 Limited transparency from governments The event featured a keynote from Ofcom on UK’s approach to risk assessment under the Online Safety Act, and was followed by engaged discussions during the European Rights & Risks Stakeholder Engagement Forum on implementing systemic risk assessments and mitigation strategies under the EU Digital Services Act. 📢 Stay tuned for our forthcoming event report, and join us in continuing this conversation on safeguarding human rights in the digital era. #DigitalRights #HumanRights #DSA #OnlineSafety #Multistakeholder #GNI

Last week, at the WSIS+20 High Level Event in Geneva, GNI joined global stakeholders to advance dialogue on rights-respecting digital governance. Through sessions we convened and those we contributed to, we explored how to operationalize multistakeholder models, promote human rights in technical standards, and address inclusion in emerging technologies. The slides below highlight key takeaways and reflections from GNI’s engagement in Geneva. For detailed descriptions of the sessions that GNI organized and participated in, visit: https://lnkd.in/gKPZuhfB

The socio-political, and socio-technological contexts in both New Zealand, and Sri Lanka demand the strongest human rights guardrails, and protections in national AI frameworks, regulations, laws, and strategies. The Global Network Initiative principles on the freedom of expression, and privacy spring to mind as vital, establishing concrete mechanisms for protecting freedom of expression and privacy rights that AI systems threaten through surveillance and algorithmic decision-making, requiring transparent accountability and independent assessment rather than voluntary compliance, mandating multi-stakeholder governance that could ensure Māori participation and prevent algorithmic colonisation, and compelling companies to resist government demands that compromise human rights. In New Zealand (and in Sri Lanka), these are protections entirely absent from the national strategy's "light-touch" approach, which smacks of a laissez-faire (libertarian?) approach to AI adoption, and adaptation with scant regard for first principles. To wit, the GNI framework's requirement for companies to integrate human rights considerations into all decision-making and demonstrate efforts to minimise adverse impacts would provide the enforceable safeguards that New Zealand's strategy lacks, whilst its insistence on extending these obligations to business partners would address the critical gap around international AI systems deployed locally without meaningful oversight.

GPD and Global Network Initiative are co-hosting this session today at the #WSIS+20 High-Level Event, exploring how multistakeholder approaches can be reinforced and evolve in national, regional, international, multilateral and multistakeholder Internet and digital policy processes. ⏰ 15:00–15:45 CEST 🌐 “From Principles to Practice: Operationalizing Multistakeholder Governance” 🎤 Moderated by Ellie McDonald (GPD) and Elonnai Hickok (GNI) with: 🔸 Ian S. | Director of the Internet Governance Section | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts 🔸 Thobekile Matimbe | Senior Manager, Partnerships and Engagements | Paradigm Initiative 🔸 Carl Gahnberg, PhD | Director of Policy Development & Research | Internet Society 🔸 Jhalak Kakkar | Executive Director | Centre for Communication Governance