We call for a world in which technology is built in service of humanity and where our global public square protects human rights above profits.

Right now, the huge potential of technology to advance our societies has been undermined by the business model and design of the dominant online platforms.

But we remind all those in power that true human progress comes from harnessing technology to advance rights and freedoms for all, not sacrificing them for the wealth and power of a few.

• READ MORE: ‘We must act now’: Ressa, Muratov launch action plan vs Big Tech information crisis

We urge rights-respecting democracies to wake up to the existential threat of information ecosystems being distorted by a Big Tech business model fixated on harvesting people’s data and attention, even as it undermines serious journalism and polarises debate in society and political life.

When facts become optional and trust disappears, we will no longer be able to hold power to account. We need a public sphere where fostering trust with a healthy exchange of ideas is valued more highly than corporate profits and where rigorous journalism can cut through the noise.

Many governments around the world have exploited these platforms’ greed to grab and consolidate power. That is why they also attack and muzzle the free press.

Clearly, these governments cannot be trusted to address this crisis. But nor should we put our rights in the hands of technology companies’ intent on sustaining a broken business model that actively promotes disinformation, hate speech and abuse.

The resulting toxic information ecosystem is not inevitable. Those in power must do their part to build a world that puts human rights, dignity, and security first, including by safeguarding scientific and journalistic methods and tested knowledge. To build that world, we must:

Bring an end to the surveillance-for-profit business model

The invisible “editors” of today’s information ecosystem are the opaque algorithms and recommender systems built by tech companies that track and target us. They amplify misogyny, racism, hate, junk science and disinformation — weaponising every societal fault line with relentless surveillance to maximise “engagement”.

This surveillance-for-profit business model is built on the con of our supposed consent. But forcing us to choose between allowing platforms and data brokers to feast on our personal data or being shut out from the benefits of the modern world is simply no choice at all.

The vast machinery of corporate surveillance not only abuses our right to privacy, but allows our data to be used against us, undermining our freedoms and enabling discrimination.

This unethical business model must be reined in globally, including by bringing an end to surveillance advertising that people never asked for and of which they are often unaware.

Europe has made a start, with the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts. Now these must be enforced in ways that compel platforms to de-risk their design, detox their algorithms and give users real control.

Privacy and data rights, to date largely notional, must also be properly enforced. And advertisers must use their money and influence to protect their customers against a tech industry that is actively harming people.

What an incredible, hopeful time in Oslo! Thank you for the dreams and the laughter, dear friends! #CourageON @NobelPeaceOslo https://t.co/zfvuHwWFxp

— Maria Ressa (@mariaressa) September 4, 2022

End tech discrimination and treat people everywhere equally
Global tech companies afford people unequal rights and protection depending on their status, power, nationality, and language. We have seen the painful and destructive consequences of tech companies’ failure to prioritise the safety of all people everywhere equally.

Companies must be legally required to rigorously assess human rights risks in every country they seek to expand in, ensuring proportionate language and cultural competency. They must also be forced to bring their closed-door decisions on content moderation and algorithm changes into the light and end all special exemptions for those with the most power and reach.

These safety, design, and product choices that affect billions of people cannot be left to corporations to decide. Transparency and accountability rules are an essential first step to reclaiming the internet for the public good.

Rebuild independent journalism as the antidote to tyranny
Big tech platforms have unleashed forces that are devastating independent media by swallowing up online advertising while simultaneously enabling a tech-fueled tsunami of lies and hate that drown out facts.

For facts to stand a chance, we must end the amplification of disinformation by tech platforms. But this alone is not enough. Just 13 percent of the world’s population can currently access a free press.

If we are to hold power to account and protect journalists, we need unparalleled investment in a truly independent media persevering in situ or working in exile that ensures its sustainability while incentivising compliance with ethical norms in journalism.

21st century newsrooms must also forge a new, distinct path, recognising that to advance justice and rights, they must represent the diversity of the communities they serve. Governments must ensure the safety and independence of journalists who are increasingly being attacked, imprisoned, or killed on the frontlines of this war on facts.

We, as Nobel Laureates, from across the world, send a united message: together we can end this corporate and technological assault on our lives and liberties, but we must act now.

It is time to implement the solutions we already have to rebuild journalism and reclaim the technological architecture of global conversation for all humanity.

We call on all rights-respecting democratic governments to:

1. Require tech companies to carry out independent human rights impact assessments that must be made public as well as demand transparency on all aspects of their business — from content moderation to algorithm impacts to data processing to integrity policies.

2. Protect citizens’ right to privacy with robust data protection laws.

3. Publicly condemn abuses against the free press and journalists globally and commit funding and assistance to independent media and journalists under attack.

We call on the EU to:

4. Be ambitious in enforcing the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts so these laws amount to more than just “new paperwork” for the companies and instead force them to make changes to their business model, such as ending algorithmic amplification that threatens fundamental rights and spreads disinformation and hate, including in cases where the risks originate outside EU borders.

5. Urgently propose legislation to ban surveillance advertising, recognizing this practice is fundamentally incompatible with human rights.

6. Properly enforce the EU General Data Protection Regulation so that people’s data rights are finally made reality.

7. Include strong safeguards for journalists’ safety, media sustainability and democratic guarantees in the digital space in the forthcoming European Media Freedom Act.

8. Protect media freedom by cutting off disinformation upstream. This means there should be no special exemptions or carve-outs for any organisation or individual in any new technology or media legislation. With globalised information flows, this would give a blank check to those governments and non-state actors who produce industrial scale disinformation to harm democracies and polarize societies everywhere.

9. Challenge the extraordinary lobbying machinery, the astroturfing campaigns and recruitment revolving door between big tech companies and European government institutions.

We call on the UN to:

10. Create a special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General focused on the Safety of Journalists (SESJ) who would challenge the current status quo and finally raise the cost of crimes against journalists.

Presented by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureates Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov at the Freedom of Expression Conference, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway, on September 2, 2022. Republished from Rappler with permission.

• Full list of more than 100 signatories

In the wake of this week’s revelations about the Pegasus spyware, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and two journalists with French and Moroccan dual nationality, Omar Brouksy and Maati Monjib, have filed a joint complaint with prosecutors in Paris.

They are calling on them to “identify those responsible, and their accomplices” for targeted harassment of the journalists.

The complaint does not name NSO Group, the Israeli company that makes Pegasus, but it targets the company and was filed in response to the revelations that Pegasus has been used to spy on at least 180 journalists in 20 countries, including 30 in France.

• READ MORE: Pegasus: RSF calls for Israeli moratorium on spyware exports
• More reports on the ‘vile and loathsome’ Pegasus spyware tool

Drafted by RSF lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, the complaint cites invasion of privacy (article 216-1 of the French penal code), violation of the secrecy of correspondence (article 226-15), fraudulent collection of personal data (article 226- 18), fraudulent data introduction and extraction and access to automated data systems (articles 323-1 and 3, and 462-2), and undue interference with the freedom of expression and breach of the confidentiality of sources (article 431-1).

This complaint is the first in a series that RSF intends to file in several countries together with journalists who were directly targeted.

The complaint makes it clear that NSO Group’s spyware was used to target Brouksy and Monjib and other journalists the Moroccan authorities wanted to silence.

The author of two books on the Moroccan monarchy and a former AFP correspondent, Brouksy is an active RSF ally in Morocco.

20-day hunger strike
Monjib, who was recently defended by RSF, was released by the Moroccan authorities on March 23 after a 20-day hunger strike, and continues to await trial.

“We will do everything to ensure that NSO Group is convicted for the crimes it has committed and for the tragedies it has made possible,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“We have filed a complaint in France first because this country appears to be a prime target for NSO Group customers, and because RSF’s international’s headquarters are located here. Other complaints will follow in other countries. The scale of the violations that have been revealed calls for a major legal response.”

After revelations by the Financial Times in 2019 about attacks on the smartphones of around 100 journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents, several lawsuits were filed against NSO Group, including one by the WhatsApp messaging service in California.

The amicus brief that RSF and other NGOs filed in this case said: “The intrusions into the private communications of activists and journalists cannot be justified on grounds of security or defence, but are carried out solely with the aim of enabling government opponents to be tracked down and gagged.

“NSO Group nonetheless continues to provide surveillance technology to its state clients, knowing that they are using it to violate international law and thereby failing in its responsibility to respect human rights.”

RSF included NSO Group in its list of “digital predators” in 2020.

• The 2021 ‘digital predators’ list

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

The opposition National Party leader says he has written to the party’s board asking them to remove MP Hamish Walker from the party after it was revealed he leaked private health information to New Zealand media.

It was revealed yesterday that former National Party president Michelle Boag was responsible for leaking confidential covid-19 patients details to Hamish Walker, who then passed that information on to media.

Prior to that revelation, National Party leader Todd Muller described the leak as “loose, shabby and a reminder these guys can’t manage important things well”.

READ MORE: ‘Privacy breach has ‘ring of dirty politics’ – Hipkins
LISTEN: ‘It’s completely unacceptable” – Todd Muller

“The problem is when you’ve allowed a culture of sloppiness and clumsiness to take over and become pervasive, you know, really history suggests you need a new broom to be able to sort and set the tone from the top,” he said just a few days ago.

Minister of Health and State Services Chris Hipkins said he was disappointed about the leak and said it had “a ring of dirty politics about it”, but he did not want to prejudice the investigation.

Walker, who admitted the leak late yesterday afternoon, has already been stripped of his portfolios.

Muller told RNZ Morning Report there needed to be consequences and he has written to the party’s board asking it to remove Walker from the party.

“This behaviour is completely unacceptable,” Muller said.

Awaiting legal advice
“Muller said he became aware that Walker was responsible for the leak on Monday and was awaiting legal advice before passing that information on.

He said he had not spoken to Boag about the issue and he was not sure what the arrangement between her and Walker was.

“It doesn’t support the values I bring to the role, and it doesn’t support the values of the National Party I know.”

“I am personally, hugely angry. This is not the politics who reflects who I am as a person. It does not reflect the National Party.

The board will meet to discuss the matter today.

“Ultimately it’s a board decision, but he’s shown some serious lapses of judgement. It’s totally inappropriate.”

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards agreed it was an appalling lack of judgement.

‘Using unwell individuals as pawns’
“It’s really difficult to justify using unwell individuals as pawns in that kind of game.”

Edwards said MPs were exempt from privacy legislation so it falls to the National Party leader and board to administer discipline.

Boag, however, may have breached the Privacy Act, he said.

“I will be thinking about what, if any, response we make to that… those decisions are yet to be made.”

Edwards said he was a little surprised the Auckland Helicopter Trust had access to the details.

“It’s not immediately obvious to me as to why they would need information about people under quarantine.

“I’m very interested in understanding the breadth of that distribution of the information.”

Up to National to deal with
Quarantine Minister Megan Woods told Morning Report the matter was one for the National Party to deal with.

“We’ve been really clear, leaking of that information is really disappointing, these are New Zealanders who had returned home to be safe, they have a right to assume their data won’t be leaked to the media.”

Emergency services across the board are supplied the names of people who have covid-19, she said.

“That is because if emergency services need to come into contact with someone who has tested covid positive for whatever reason, be that an airlift or whatever, that they have that information and make sure their staff is protected.”

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

The State Services Minister says the government will do everything it can to track down who is responsible for a massive privacy breach relating to New Zealand’s active covid cases, and is not ruling out pursuing criminal charges.

An investigation has been ordered into the breach, with a leak revealing the personal details and identities of New Zealand’s 18 active covid cases.

RNZ has seen a document that includes the full names, addresses, ages and the names of the hotel and one hospital the people have been quarantining in.

READ MORE: No new NZ covid cases for fourth day this week

Minister Chris Hipkins said the investigation could result in criminal charges, depending on the outcome.

“Ultimately, if there are avenues available to us to pursue somebody who’s done this maliciously then we’ll certainly be exploring those, this is not the sort of thing that I am willing to let go,” Hipkins said.

“This is a major breach of trust and confidence and it should be rigorously pursued.”

He was “very, very angry” such highly sensitive information was leaked, but said the source was still unknown.

‘Abhorrent’ if deliberate
It would be “abhorrent” if it was a deliberate act, Hipkins said.

The information is held by a number of agencies and by some involved in the management of managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

The State Services Commission has been asked to work with all of the relevant agencies, he said, as at the moment there were several government agencies involved. He said at this point “we don’t have certainty about where in the process the information has ended up being released”.

“To identify what the record keeping practices are, who has access to the information, how it came into the public domain, I want them to do that really thoroughly, I want them to leave no stone unturned.”

Motive also had to be determined, Hipkins said, whether it was a mistake “and then someone took advantage of the mistake they made, or whether it was more malicious than that”.

Someone “impartial” would be brought in to carry out the investigation, which may also involve forensic analysis of IT systems, the minister said.

“I think it’s important that we bring someone in who’s not directly involved … which is what the State Services Commissioner will help to facilitate”.

‘Not acceptable behaviour’
He had this message for the thousands of people coming through the border regime, who are obliged to hand over personal information.

“On behalf of the whole government, and I’m not sure where in the government the system has fallen down, I can apologise to those people, this is not acceptable, no government should tolerate this kind of behaviour and we won’t.

“And I want to give an absolute assurance that we will get to the bottom of it, and that we will make sure it doesn’t happen again and that anyone who has acted maliciously will be held accountable for that.”

The opposition National Party leader, Todd Muller, said the leak was unacceptable and “shabby”.

He said the breach was “quite staggering, it talks to a government that’s slipping off the side of a cliff, in terms of managing this issue, the border, the informaton pertaining to it”.

“If they can’t manage personal information, bluntly, they can’t manage the border and they can’t manage the country.”

From the National Party’s perspective, Muller said it was “unacceptable” and they would see where it ended up.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

Indonesia’s first two confirmed Covid-19 coronavirus patients claim that media coverage and discussion on social media have taken a greater toll on them than the disease itself, saying that numerous breaches of privacy and the resulting stigma have left them “mentally drained”.

Some people went so far as to directly attack one of the patients, known as Case 1, through social media.

A message saying “You have been warned by the government to be vigilant of foreigners but you were stubborn” was sent to her over Instagram, a screenshot of which was shown to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Indonesia to test more people for the Covid-19 virus

Earlier, personal details of the two patients comprising their initials, ages and home address popped up on WhatsApp groups and other social media from an unclear source not long after the news about the confirmed cases broke on Monday.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that a 31-year-old woman (Case 1) and her 64-year-old mother (Case 2), both residents of Depok, West Java, had tested positive for Covid-19 after coming into contact with a Japanese woman who later tested positive in Malaysia.

The President’s announcement came as a surprise to the patients themselves.

“We had not been [officially told that we had tested positive],” Case 2 told kompas.com on Tuesday.

Patients’ house swarmed
Ever since the announcement, reporters have swarmed the patients’ house. In social media, photographs of the patients also spread like wildfire.

Some internet users questioned the younger patient’s profession, correlating it with how she might have contracted the virus.

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said on Monday that Case 1 was a dance teacher and had danced with the Japanese citizen, whom he described as a close friend of the woman, in a club in Kemang, South Jakarta.

In a statement made on Wednesday, Case 1 shared how she might have contracted the virus and what she did afterward — which differed from the account released by the authorities.

Case 1 said she had started coughing and having a fever on Feb. 16 and decided to visit a private hospital along with her mother last Thursday. There, she was diagnosed with bronchopneumonia and her mother with typhus.

The following day, a friend in Malaysia called to let her know a Japanese woman who had tested positive for Covid-19 on Feb. 26 had visited the restaurant in Jakarta where she had been hosting on Feb. 15.

“For the sake of national security and health, I informed the doctor that I needed to be tested and that’s why I’ve been isolated since Sunday. I don’t even know nor am I acquainted with the Japanese citizen,” she said.

Japanese citizen a woman
She further emphasised the Japanese citizen was a woman, not a man who “rented” her like the gossip said. “I was just in a room with the Japanese woman without knowing who she was.”

“Please respect me and my family’s privacy, stop spreading our photos and fake news about us,” she said in a statement.

The breach of the patients’ personal data also affected their neighbours. Anis Hidayah of Migrant Care, one of the neighbours, said media coverage had disrupted their activities: some were not allowed by their employers to work and app-based motorcycle taxi drivers were adamant about not accepting orders from the housing complex.

“What I regret the most is it has framed people I know personally in unfavorable ways,” Hidayah said.

Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy researcher Wahyudi Djafar said the recent case of privacy breach was due to the absence of legislation on personal data protection and the lack of respect for privacy in society.

Unlike Singapore with its 2012 Data Protection Act, Indonesia has no specific law stipulating what makes data private, the rights of data owners, the duties of the data processors, or the mechanisms for processing such data.

“Even if some laws regulate about privacy, the material is limited and often contradictory because they don’t follow the same principle of personal data protection,” he said.

Data protection bill
He urged that a data protection bill be discussed, although he warned the public to keep an eye on the deliberations as there was potential for abuse of power in the current draft. The draft only imposes administrative sanctions on the government for possible wrongdoing.

Jokowi requested people respect the Covid-19 patients’ privacy following his announcement. He also asked that his ministers and the hospitals involved in treating the patients avoid disclosing the patients’ private information.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) called on members of the press to be more considerate in their reporting by speaking to the most credible sources on the issue, as opposed to publishing “sensationalised” pieces on the patients and their families.

Lawmaker Charles Honoris has urged the government to ensure the privacy of its citizens in relation to the spread of the coronavirus.

“Mass disclosure of Covid-19 patients’ private information should be taken seriously as a violation of citizens’ privacy,” he said.

He said the government must learn from Singapore and Japan in this regard, specifically about how the two countries had implemented a zero-tolerance privacy policy to protect the personal lives of its confirmed Covid-19 patients.

The writers are staff reporters of The Jakarta Post.

• Coronavirus global updates