How to champion digital rights and climate justice

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Digital rights are human rights applied to the internet age – the rights to online privacy and freedom of expression, for example.

 

In 2022, the non-profit research initiative Ranking Digital Rights found that “when it comes to aligning their policies and practices with human rights-based standards and their obligations under the UN Guiding Principles, companies are content to conduct business as usual when the state of the world demands anything but”.

 

The Alliance for Universal Digital Rights state, “The people and communities who are most profoundly and consistently affected by the uneven regulation of our digital ecosystem are those with the least power and privilege.” This includes women and girls, Indigenous and racial minorities, people with disabilities, and those living in socioeconomically neglected communities around the world.

 

Digital rights relate deeply to the global challenge of climate injustice, as The Engine Room’s landscape report explores.

 

We discuss some of our key takeaways from this report and highlight some of the ways that organisations are already addressing shared challenges across our digital and physical environments.

 

 

Address the root problems of growth and extraction

 

The report identifies economic growth and extraction of resources as key challenges against both environmental and digital rights.

 

It cites a range of strategies that small non-profit initiatives are taking to transition to sustainable tech in trying to address climate change. These include, for example, assessing their website’s carbon footprint, pursuing sustainability qualifications, and optimising the efficiency of technical architectures such as amount of data sent to end users, “page weight”, and analytics.

 

Technologists interviewed noted that there is currently not enough research around what the greatest inefficiencies are in the digital world, which makes it hard for organisations to prioritise.

 

An energy transition specialist also commented that although this work is worthwhile, it must be combined with a critical view on economic growth – or this increased efficiency can paradoxically lead to more unsustainable growth.

These organisations are also reconsidering their activities through a broad environmental lens, the report states – for example, thinking about the environmental impacts throughout the lifecycle of technology production and use.

 

Hanna Smith, Green Web fellow, comments: “[carbon dioxide] emissions are a symptom of deeper problems…the underlying causes need to be addressed in the right way so they stay fixed”.

 

Examples of this in the charity sector include Friends of the Earth Europe’s production of a tool for understanding the role of overconsumption in causing climate change, and charities like Oxfam who are urging rich countries to pay loss and damage funds to those most affected by climate change.

 

From a digital rights standpoint, the users of a platform can be considered by tech companies as a resource for extraction for economic growth – for example, to sell their clicks to advertisers.

 

Glitch is a UK charity addressing root issues of growth and extraction from a digital rights perspective, advocating for a tech tax on technology giants who are generating a sizeable profit while enabling online abuse of women, girls, and marginalised communities on their platforms.

 

They state that at least 10% of the tax should go towards civil society organisations ending online abuse through digital citizenship and online safety. The charity has also called for the UK’s broader online harms and data protection agenda to be protected in any trade agreements.

 

 

Promote internet access and climate literacy

 

Access to the internet is an important issue for any charity to consider when engaging their beneficiaries.

In relation to environmental and climate justice, the report notes that lack of internet access “can make it difficult to participate in multilateral decision-making arenas, to push back against, take control of the narrative around, or even just contribute to global policies”.

 

One interviewee said, “If we don’t get real about who has access and how…including women and marginalised communities, then I’m not sure we can piggyback on the advantage that technology gives us.”

 

Computer Aid International is a UK charity which aims to provide sustainable IT solutions and equal access to technology in the Global South, including internet access.

 

The Engine Room report goes a step further and explains that enabling participation on the internet with a diversity of languages, specifically spoken language, is important to inclusion and therefore global justice. One interviewee, the founder of a voice-based news portal in India, emphasises the need to link the internet with radio and audio to do so.

 

The report also states that internet access should be paired with climate literacy to combat climate disinformation online. The Carbon Literacy Trust advances the education of the public in the conservation, protection, and improvement of the physical and natural environment through supporting carbon literacy.

 

 

Support local stewardship of data

 

In order to avoid the misappropriation of sensitive data, one interviewee in the report advocates for keeping data locally stewarded.

 

This consists of ensuring that data collection is community-driven, that data is stored locally, and that data is used for a limited set of uses agreed in advance, with data collection practices based on a model of enthusiastic assent.

 

The Ada Lovelace Institute provides evidence that “involving people…in the design, development, and deployment of data governance frameworks can help create the checks and balances that engender greater societal and economic equity, can help rebalance asymmetries of power, and can contribute towards increased public confidence in the use of data”.

 

The non-profit Digital Democracy uses maps and local stewardship of data to help defend the land rights of marginalised communities. In this way, they are working to protect both environmental and digital rights.

 

The organisation developed a new system using decentralised peer-to-peer databases synchronised between different devices and shared through a local Wi-Fi network without internet access. This means that the communities involved can control who has access to local environmental information.

 

 

Champion digital security

 

All charities should focus on digital security in order to protect against loss of revenue, reputational damage, and financial disruption.

 

The Engine Room has found that digital security is also important in the fight for environmental and climate injustice, particularly with climate activists as well as in defending the human rights and social justice movements.

 

It notes that cyber security threats have continued to evolve, with organisations worldwide facing increased attacks.

 

The report suggests that organisations in the fields of environmental and climate justice can support the long-term digital security capacity of climate movements and land defenders as well as provide legal support and fight against criminalisation.

 

If your mission isn’t related to climate and the environment, you can still champion digital security to protect your beneficiaries’ rights. This can be done with a range of internal measures to protect their data, as well as including digital security within your services as appropriate.

 

For example, Age UK provides advice to its beneficiaries about staying safe online, including how to protect their computer, tablet, and smartphone.