The Mozilla Foundation has published its annual Internet Health Report that explores what it means for the internet to be healthy through research and stories in publications. New to the 2020 report is the foundation’s collaboration with 100 individuals working towards a healthier internet, all of whom were asked to specify one healthy and one unhealthy moment for the internet from the past year.Two of EngageMedia’s staff are featured in this collaboration: Digital Rights Manager (Mekong) Darika Bamrungchok and Digital Rights Project Manager (India) Subhashish Panigrahi.
In the report, Darika said that “[t]ech giants should be more transparent about their existing content moderation mechanisms, including those that increasingly use algorithms and those that follow government intervention”.
In Thailand, the government had prepared to pursue legal action against Facebook, Google, and Twitter due to allegedly illegal posts in 2020. It has also arrested over 30 activists who protested against the government in late 2020, and has charged and sentenced others under the controversial lese majeste law. EngageMedia discusses these events and other digital rights violations by the Thai government in our Thailand episode of Pretty Good Podcast with Amnesty International Thailand director Piyanut Kotsan.
Meanwhile, Subhashish highlighted that “[a]ccess to critical information in native languages in inclusive and accessible mediums” is an urgent step to take for a healthier Internet.
In India, “more than 250 Dalits from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, and dozens of others in Silicon Valley have come forward to report discrimination, bullying, ostracisation, and even sexual harassment by colleagues who are higher-caste Indians”, according to a report from VICE News. It is thus imperative for civil society to help protect marginalised people in the digital space, particularly their stories and their voices.
The latest report also includes an end-of-year analysis that focused on how “the internet helped us and harmed us like never before”, a slideshow of “Internet Facts and Figures”, and as three spotlight articles focusing on “aspects of internet health, data, and artificial intelligence through the lenses of racial justice, data and labour in the gig economy, and corporate and algorithmic transparency.
Read the full Internet Health Report 2020 here.
Editor’s Note: The title of the post has been edited to better articulate that EngageMedia staff are only contributors to the Internet Health Report by Mozilla Foundation.
