GENEVA - The space for freedom of expression is shrinking dramatically as governments use new technologies to suppress dissent and digital giants manipulate information online to enrich themselves, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, warned today.
In her final report to the Human Rights Council, Khan highlighted the conflation of State and corporate interests to exploit vulnerabilities of the right to freedom of expression.
"Protecting freedom of expression requires States to uphold human rights, but when the world's most powerful government threatens to use its political and economic weapons - from tariffs to sanctions - to dissuade other States from regulating its digital and AI companies, then freedom of expression becomes fodder for geopolitics, a commodity for trade," Khan said.
"Freedom of expression - a fundamental, inalienable human right - has been privatised, monetised, manipulated and unlawfully restricted," she said.
"The digital revolution has been transformative but the social costs are high and rising - borne by women threatened with online violence , children whose health and safety are endangered by AI, journalists whose livelihoods are destroyed by platforms that refuse to share value, and the public whose capacity to form independent opinions is degraded by information environments polluted by hate and lies," the Special Rapporteur said.
"AI is running amok. From the highly political to the deeply personal, nothing is out of bounds for new technologies. Innovation at speed with no guardrails is a recipe for disaster."
Khan expressed grave concern about the asymmetry of power between States and Big Tech companies and oligarchs who are accountable to no democratic process, subject to no meaningful oversight, and often face no consequences for their harmful actions.
"The asymmetry of power challenges the human rights model in which States are obliged to protect their citizens from corporate abuse of human rights. It blurs the line between the regulator and the regulated, the protector and the predator," she said.
"The problem is not only corporate greed but also governments which abuse their regulatory power to censor online speech."
Khan denounced the backsliding on human rights by States, the weaponisation of speech by populist leaders to spread hate and incite violence and silence minority voices, and the increasing use of counter-terrorism laws to suppress peaceful protests.
"Freedom of expression-which belongs to the many - is being made into the right of a few," she warned.
Khan called for broad multistakeholder coalition building to confront powerful interests, institutional counterweights to resist corporate capture of freedom of expression, including regulation grounded in human rights, independent regulators and robust data protection, and measures to break the monopolistic grip of large digital and AI companies.
"Platforms, oligarchs and artificial intelligence companies have 'scorched the earth' of information ecosystems but some new green shoots of good community and state practice are emerging. They should be encouraged and supported by the international community," she said.
