Two US human rights groups said on Friday that they were working with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Vodafone to protect civil liberties online.
The technology giants will help craft rules of engagement for Internet companies to follow when faced with "laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights," the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington said.
Technology companies have played vital roles in economic growth and democratic reform in developing countries, but innovations are sometimes used as tools of oppression, said the center's director Leslie Harris.
"Many governments have found ways to turn technology against their citizens -- monitoring legitimate online activities and censoring democratic material," Harris said.
"It is vital that we identify solutions that preserve the enormous democratic value provided by technological development, while at the same time protecting the human rights and civil liberties of those who stand to benefit," Harris said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the spotlight had been put on Internet companies after arrests in China of Internet writers such as Shi Tao (師濤), who was jailed in 2005 and subsequently sentenced to 10 years for "leaking state secrets," a China often uses for activists only guilty of exercising freedom of speech.
After rights groups accused Yahoo of helping China trace Shi Tao's e-mail exchanges with a New York-based news Web site and the Chinese court verdict named Yahoo as the source of its information, Yahoo admitted to involvement in the case.
"Governments around the world are jailing Internet journalists at a growing pace, with 49 bloggers, online editors, and Web-based reporters behind bars at the end of 2006," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said.
"Protecting the rights of these journalists to express ideas and exchange information without fear of reprisal is one of the highest priorities for the press freedom community today," he said in a statement.
A CPJ census found that the number of journalists jailed worldwide hit a record last year with 134 in jail on Dec. 1, more than one-third of whom were Internet bloggers and online reporters.
Investors, academics, and groups such as Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, New York-based Human Rights in China, and the Electronic Freedom Foundation in San Francisco will take part in the project, which is to be completed this year.
A representative of the UN will be part of the group as an observer, according the center, which is coordinating the endeavor with the non-profit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in San Francisco.
The project builds on discussions started with the technology firms separately by the rights groups last year.
"We've already learned a great deal about the obstacles we face and the ways business and other stakeholders can join forces to address those challenges," BSR chief executive Aron Cramer said.
"This important dialogue reflects a shared commitment to maximize the information available via the internet on the basis of global principles protecting free expression and privacy.
The new combined group intends to establish a framework to implement the principles and hold signatories accountable, the center said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort