Women's rights

Rana Ayyub is defiant. Nothing they can do will stop me from writing and doing what I am doing,” she said. Ayyub is an independent journalist and writer from India, whose work has included investigations into alleged crimes committed by public officials. In April, she was subjected to an online hate campaign after a social media posts falsely quoted her as supporting child rapists and saying that Muslims were no longer safe in India. After the Tweets, she was subjected to a virulent online hate campaign that included terrifying messages that called for her to be gang-raped and murdered and dehumanized her Muslim faith. The messages kept coming, even when she pointed out that the Tweet was false. A group of United Nations human rights experts later called on the Indian government to act to protect Ayyub. Her experience, and the lack of protection from her government and social media companies, led Ayyub to call for stronger regulation on online platforms and how they manage ...

“One of the greatest threats to online free speech today is the murkiness of the rules,” said David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. “States circumvent human rights obligations by going directly to the companies, asking them to take down content or accounts without going through legal process, while companies often impose rules they have developed without public input and enforced with little clarity. We need to change these dynamics so that individuals have a clear sense of what rules govern and how they are being applied.” The internet enables global sharing of and access to information, but its perception has taken a dark turn in recent years. Governments and the public often see hate, abuse and disinformation in the content generated by users, Kaye said. Fears over disinformation, terrorism, online abuse, hate and xenophobia have led some governments to be heavy-handed in their responses to content regulation. Kaye recently released his latest...