How “I-Star” Organizations Shape Free Speech and Human Rights

Earlier in July 2024, CDT Chief Technology Officer Mallory Knodel delivered a comprehensive overview of the state of human rights considerations in internet governance and standards at the HOPE XV (Hackers On Planet Earth) conference in Queens, New York. Her talk focused on recent and ongoing developments at the “I-star” organizations (the top-level governance bodies such as ICANN, IETF, IEEE, W3C and ITU) and how they could affect the daily lives of billions of internet users around the world.

Mallory touched on the major issues and controversies before the governing organizations as they relate to fundamental human rights such as free expression and privacy. This included her own work leading the Human Rights Protocol Considerations Research Group as it tackles questions such as the role of privacy protections in stopping domestic partner abuse.

Mallory’s talk also included updates on various initiatives and developments around Global Privacy Control, censorship avoidance, satellite internet access, net neutrality and many other issues.Are censorship circumvention and privacy two sides of the same coin? Has the Metaverse faded away as a consideration? Watch Mallory dive into these topics and more in her talk, which starts around minute 3:34:10.