A Safe Space Online

With the word “Google” — as a noun or a verb — now part of our everyday vernacular, it goes without saying that the Internet has had a far-reaching impact on people’s lives. “The Internet has become so much a part of our daily lives that we really can’t live without it,” said Mr Dan Shefet. On the one hand, there are benefits to be gained by having such open access to information. On the other hand, the prevalence of cyber bullying shows how easy it is for an individual to be a victim, or a perpetrator, of Internet abuse.

Mr Shefet identified three types of toxic online content, each having dramatic real-life consequences:

1. Effect on the individual. This includes defamation or hate speech directed against an individual. It impedes one’s ability to lead a normal life.
2. Effect on societal values. The dissemination of fake news impacted the United States 2016 presidential election, posing a threat to democracy. Businesses that engage in false or misleading marketing practices also fall into this category.
3. Effect on regional or global stability. Discriminating against a particular group on the grounds of race, colour, descent, nationality or ethnic origin could lead to destabilisation of world peace.

Having been himself a target of spurious accusations on the Internet that sought to tarnish his reputation, including being linked to the Serbian mafia, Mr Shefet founded the Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID) in 2014. AAID’s objective is to make Internet infrastructure providers such as Google and Facebook legally accountable for removing hateful content posted by untraceable online users.

ACCOUNTABILITY ON THE WEB

“Most of the time, Internet infrastructure providers face situations where they have to make a difficult judgement call,” acknowledged Mr Shefet. For example, Facebook recently took down photos of a white supremacist rally in Poland, only to later realise that the photos had actually been posted by a journalist who was simply covering the news and not by someone endorsing neo-fascism. To prevent such excessive censorship, as well as to provide government oversight over the process, AAID proposes creating the new position of an “Internet ombudsman”.

“The work we are doing at AAID may lead to a European Parliament resolution in May 2018 to start preparing a treaty under which an Internet ombudsman would be appointed in each country [in Europe],” said Mr Shefet. Once malicious content is flagged by a user, the Internet infrastructure provider would report it to the ombudsman, who would then review the online material and recommend whether or not to take it down.

U@live moderator Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83), who is on the AAID Board, wondered what the office of an Internet ombudsman would look like. “The term ‘ombudsman’ typically refers to an institution rather than a person,” explained Mr Shefet. In this case, the position could be held by one person or a group, as long as they possess moral clout. “I don’t know who the individual would be — for example, a Supreme Court judge or an ethics professor — but he or she must be a highly-renowned individual whom people trust to represent the moral opinion of the population.”

Other questions raised by the audience ranged from the debate over free speech to extra protection for children and women, who are usually subjected to more online — and offline — harassment and hate speech than men. Citing the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as similar regional treaties, Mr Shefet said, “Each convention has caveats; free speech is not absolute. The abuse of free speech is not protected in any international treaty on human rights.”

He also mentioned that AAID has developed an Enhanced Accountability Standard applicable to “certain exposed groups in society”, especially women and children. “AAID believes that a special standard of diligence is required by Internet infrastructure providers when the users are children or women,” said Mr Shefet.

Mr Shefet spoke on 22 November 2017 at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House in NUS.