Always thinking

 ↑ Yahoo founder Jerry Yang and Gao Qin Sheng, the mother of a journalist imprisoned as a result of Yahoo's cooperation with the Chinese government in 2004. Yang now says he wants to ensure the firm's actions match its values.
Photograph: Getty

  In recent years technology giants Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have been widely criticised for their business practices in repressive countries such as China. But yesterday the trio tackled their critics by joining a new scheme to help protect the freedoms of internet users around the world.

The Global Network Initiative, a new human rights coalition, says it is working to help companies stand up to authoritarian governments in countries such as China, Vietnam, Syria, Burma and Iran.

As well as the triumvirate of hi-tech companies, the group is also being backed by a wide range of campaigners and academic organisations, including Human Rights Watch and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The initiative aims to "protect and advance user rights to freedom of expression and privacy".

The initiative's backers said it is more important than ever for technology companies to understand their role in protecting users around the world. "The number of states actively seeking to censor online content and access personal information is growing," said Colin Maclay of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, one of the initiative's signatories.

"A strong code of conduct for companies embodies the most promising approach to dilemmas that neither national law nor international regulation can effectively resolve at this time."

The companies joining the initiative have agreed to follow a list of principles, including a commitment to consider fighting unwarranted government demands in the courts.

The coalition also represents a truce between campaign groups and technology industry leaders, which have had testy relationships in the past. Human Rights Watch, in particular, had accused companies of having attitudes that were "arbitrary, opaque and unaccountable", and argued that technology corporations should be among the last to succumb to government demands.

"It was ironic that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor," said the group in 2006.


  전 세계로의 사업확장, 고차원 수준의 미디어 기술의 발달만 꾀하던 거대 인터넷 미디어 그룹들이, 그 보다 인터넷user들의 인권보호가 먼저라며 입을 모아 Global Network Initiative(이하 GNI)를 만들었다. GNI는 그 목표에서 "protect and advance user rights to freedom of expression and privacy".라고 밝히고 있듯이 인터넷 사용자, 즉 user의 자유와 사생활을 보호해주고 향상시키는 것을 목적으로 한다.
  이들이 연합을 맺은 까닭은 무엇일까? 그것은 국가마다 인터넷 공간에 대한 명확한 규정이 없으며, 각기 다르기 때문에 인터넷 공간 상의 인권 침해 및 사생활 침해에 관해 무엇인가 공통된 규정과 제재, 교육이 필요했기 때문이다. 이를 위해 거대 포털 미디어 그룹인 야후, 구글, 마이크로소프트사가 연합으로 뭉친 것이다.
  인터넷 공간이 매우 자유롭다 보니 자유가 방종이 되어 사생활 침해를 포함한 인권침해의 장소로 변질되고 있다. 이렇게 변질된 인터넷 공간에서의 인권침해는 단순히 인터넷 공간 상에서 끝나는 것이라, 현실 생활에 까지 영향을 미친다. 더 이상 인터넷 공간이 변질 되지 않기 위해선 더 강한 제재와 규정이 필요하다. 그 의미에서 세 개의 거대 그룹의 연합은 좋은 시도로 보인다.