Rights On the Line: Are Human Rights the Price of Progress for Big Tech?
On Tuesday, May 13th at 10 am ET/ 3 pm UK/ 4 pm CET, the Investor Alliance for Human Rights and World Benchmarking Alliance hosted an hour-long investor briefing on the launch of the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights Index: Big Tech Edition.
The latest findings explore how 14 of the world’s biggest tech companies are performing when it comes to transparency on respecting users' right to privacy and freedom of expression. The 2025 edition looks at where tech companies have improved, stagnated, or collapsed in the three years since Ranking Digital Rights last assessed them in 2022.
From Amazon and YouTube to TikTok, Google Search, and WeChat, the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights Index dives deep into the policies behind 43 of Big Tech’s most dominant platform services.
The discussion, followed by Q&A, spotlighted how Big Tech shapes our digital rights, and what accountability really looks like:
- In what areas have Big Tech companies made progress in respecting digital rights and where are they backsliding? Are we seeing regional rifts in transparency emerge?
- How can investors use the insights from the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights Index to identify severe risks related to privacy and freedom of expression across major tech platforms?
- As we see mixed progress across companies, how can investors tell who’s leading on digital rights and who’s just checking the boxes?
- What responsibility do investors have when it comes to holding Big Tech accountable for how their platforms impact the rights of people online and society at large?
Speakers included:
- Leandro Ucciferri, Engagement Lead for RDR at the World Benchmarking Alliance
- Samatha Ndiwalana, RDR Research Lead at the World Benchmarking Alliance
- Juana Lee, Associate Director of Corporate Engagement at SHARE, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education
- Anita Dorett, Director at the Investor Alliance for Human Rights (moderator)
Watch the full webinar here:
Additional resources:
- Citing New Evidence of Backsliding by Tech Companies, Investors Reiterate Call for Robust Safeguards to Protect Users' Digital Rights, Investor Alliance for Human Rights
- Three years on, U.S. tech giants are moving slow and not fixing things, Jan Rydzak, World Benchmarking Alliance
- Private platforms are falling short on transparent governance, Jie Zhang, OpenMic
- User data fuels Big Tech’s algorithms, and there’s no opting out, Samantha Ndiwalana, World Benchmarking Alliance
- Why Chinese tech giants are racing to improve transparency, Jie Zhang, OpenMic
To learn more about the Investor Alliance’s coordinated Digital Rights and AI Accountability collective investor engagement, please refer to our Tech and Human Rights webpage. If you would like to participate in this engagement initiative, please complete this form.