BSR | Human Rights Impact Assessment: Facebook in Myanmar 36 FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, ASSEMBLY, AND ASSOCIATION As specified in articles 19 and 20 of the UDHR and Article 19 of the ICCPR, everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. These rights include the freedoms to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Risk / Opportunity Severity Factors Management Factors What is the potentially adverse human rights impact that might happen in the future? Scope (How many people could be affected by the harm/opportunity?) Likelihood (How likely is the impact to happen over next five years?) Scale (How serious are the impacts for the victim?) Attribution (How closely is Facebook connected to the impact?) Remediability (Will remedy restore the victim to same or equivalent position?) Content that does not violate Community Standards may be mistakenly removed. Content intended to expose human rights violations, rather than encourage them, may be removed as a result of technically violating Community Standards. Factors such as hate speech, incitement to violence, and content intended to coordinate harm may lead users who would otherwise participate in public discourse to exercise self-censorship. The government’s proposed “social media monitoring team” may make content-removal demands of Facebook that result in overbroad restrictions on freedom of expression. The government of Myanmar may block Facebook or demand that telecom network operators shut down their networks. An organization understood to be a legitimate combatant in conflict (e.g., an officially recognized armed ethnic group) may have content removed, based on being classified by Facebook as a terrorist organization—in Facebook’s Community Standards, a nongovernmental organization engaging in premeditated acts of violence. Scope: There are around 20 million Facebook users in Myanmar. While a subset of these users is most at risk of self-censorship or government-mandated restrictions, risks to freedom of expression exist for all users. Scale: The consequences for the victim are not severe (when compared to security risks), though they may be significant in some contexts—such as political speech and campaigning during election time, or content intended to raise awareness of imminent harm. Remediability: Access to remedy is often available, and content can be restored. Leverage (How much ability does Facebook have to effect change?) Likelihood: There is a high likelihood that content not violating Community Standards will occasionally be removed in error, and it is known that some users (especially those from vulnerable groups) are already exercising selfcensorship. Government restrictions on content, especially broad restrictions such as blocking and network shutdowns, are less likely, given the government’s own reliance on Facebook—though the government may increasingly target specific types and sources of content, or retaliate against Facebook if the company takes action that seriously impacts military interests. Attribution: Facebook does contribute to freedom of expression violations when content is removed in error, but is only linked to violations resulting from government actions or demands for content removal. Leverage: Facebook has leverage available via machine- and humanbased efforts to reduce restrictions to freedom of expression made in error. Facebook has significantly less leverage over the actions of the government. It is in Facebook’s control to alter the definition of terrorist organizations.