Glossary of Platform Law and Policy Terms
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This document is a DRAFT for comments, prepared by a working group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility. Please share your comments on the mailing list of the Coalition or send them via email to luca.belli[at]fgv.br or nicolo.zingales[at]fgv.br Glossary of Platform Law and Policy Terms Developed by the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility Status: DRAFT This document is a DRAFT for comments, prepared by a working group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility, a multistakeholder group under the auspices of the UN Internet Governance Forum. The elaboration process is documented at this link. This document is an official outcome of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility and was elaborated thanks to the contribution of the Coalition’s Glossary Working Group. The members of the working group are: Luca Belli, Vittorio Bertola, Yasmin Curzi de Mendonça, Giovanni De Gregorio, Rossana Ducato, Luã Fergus Oliveira da Cruz, Catalina Goanta, Tamara Gojkovic, Cynthia Khoo, Stefan Kulk, Paddy Leerssen, Laila Neves Lorenzon, Chris Marsden, Enguerrand Marique, Michael Oghia, Courtney Radsch, Konstantinos Stylianou, Rolf H. Weber, Chris Wiersma, Monika Zalnieriute and Nicolo Zingales. 1 This document is a DRAFT for comments, prepared by a working group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility. Please share your comments on the mailing list of the Coalition or send them via email to luca.belli[at]fgv.br or nicolo.zingales[at]fgv.br 2 This document is a DRAFT for comments, prepared by a working group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility. Please share your comments on the mailing list of the Coalition or send them via email to luca.belli[at]fgv.br or nicolo.zingales[at]fgv.br Why a Glossary of Key Terms on Platform Law and Policy? Luca Belli and Nicolo Zingales At the 2019 Internet Governance Forum (IGF), during the customary stocktaking meeting of the Coalition on Platform Responsibility1, hereinafter “the Coalition”, taking place after the annual session, the main suggestion emerging from participants as a next step in the Coalition work has been the elaboration of a Glossary of Platform Law and Policy Terms, so as to provide a common language for academics, regulators and policy-makers when discussing issues of platform responsibility. The Coalition relies on spontaneous contributions of its members and thus, the Glossary initiative was launched issuing a request for suggested term, in order to shape the Glossary structure, based on the Coalition collective intuition of which list of terms may be most useful. Stakeholders agreed that the Glossary would be a “living document” that could be updated over time, while aiming at bringing together contributions from a heterogeneous range of disciplines and vocabularies. It was also agreed that the definitional efforts should recognize as much as possible the existence of competing/alternative views on the topic. For this reason, contributors were encouraged to conceived of definitions as a springboard for learning more about those views, through links and references to external sources. Links to external sources will be added in the version of the Glossary that will be uploaded on the Coalition´s website, after having received and incorporated any comments arising in the discussions at the IGF 2020. The following action plan was shared for feedback, and subsequently implemented between May and October 2020: 1) reception of expressions of interest for the development of the Glossary and participation to the Coalition session 2) consolidation of the proposed terms and circulation of a draft list of terms to be used to compose the Glossary 3) reception of feedback on the draft list and suggestion of further terms 4) creation of a multistakeholder working group dedicated to the elaboration of the glossary (the Glossary Working Group) including all the individuals who expressed interest in the 2 initiative 5) elaboration of draft entries describing the proposed terms 1 For further information on the Coalition, please visit the dedicate section of the Internet Governance Forum website https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/dynamic-coalition-on-platform-responsibility-dcpr 2 The members of the working group are: Luca Belli, Vittorio Bertola, Yasmin Curzi de Mendonça, Giovanni De Gregorio, Rossana Ducato, Luã Fergus Oliveira da Cruz, Catalina Goanta, Tamara Gojkovic, Cynthia Khoo, Stefan Kulk, Paddy Leerssen, Laila Neves Lorenzon, Chris Marsden, Enguerrand Marique, Michael Oghia, Courtney Radsch, Konstantinos Stylianou, Rolf H. Weber, Chris Wiersma, Monika Zalnieriute and Nicolo Zingales. 3 This document is a DRAFT for comments, prepared by a working group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility. Please share your comments on the mailing list of the Coalition or send them via email to luca.belli[at]fgv.br or nicolo.zingales[at]fgv.br 6) consolidation of the draft entries into a first draft version of the glossary and request for comment on the first draft 7) consolidation of the updated version into a consolidated draft to be circulated at the IGF 2020 for further feedback from the IGF community 8) discussion of the draft at the 2020 session of the Coalition, during the IGF, and elaboration of a strategic approach aimed at maximising the impact of the Glossary. While this may not be the first attempt to create a glossary of platform-related terms3, the above illustrates the uniqueness of the open and transparent bottom-up process that was followed to achieve these results, encapsulating at its core the IGF´s principles of multistakeholder collaboration. We hope that this provides a basis for much needed mutual understanding and enables more meaningful and inclusive discussion among academics, policymakers, journalists, and other stakeholders with a keen interest in platform governance. To be continued! 1. About the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility The following paragraphs provide a background picture of the origins of the Platform Responsibility debate at the IGF and its progression to the current state. To start, it should be acknowledged that a core achievement of the Coalition, well beyond the IGF’s community of stakehoders, is to have coined and promoted the concept of “Platform Responsibility.”4 Such concept aims on the one hand to highlight the impact that private ordering regimes designed and implemented by platforms have on individuals’ capability to enjoy their fundamental rights, and on the other hand, to interrogate the moral, social and human rights responsibilities5 that platforms bear when setting up such regimes. Indeed, the initial goal of this Coalition was to stimulate debate and participatory analysis on the meaning of platform providers’ responsible behaviour. From the early steps, it was clear to participants that the starting point should be an analysis of the application to digital platforms of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights6, in particular their responsibility to respect Human Rights and to grant effective grievance mechanisms.7 To lay the foundations of such work, the participants to the inception meeting of the Coalition, in 2014 at the IGF in Istanbul, suggested the development of a 8 set of recommendations on core dimensions of platform responsibility. 3 See for instance http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2018/01/glossary-internet-content-blocking-tools 4 See L. Belli, P. De Filippi, N. Zingales, A New Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility within the IGF. Medialaws, 11 June 2014, http://www.medialaws.eu/a-new-dynamic-coalition-on-platform-responsibility-within-the-igf/ 5 See Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie: Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, UN Human Rights Council Document A/HRC/17/31, 21 March 2011. www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf 6 Idem. 7 See L. Belli, P. De Filippi, N. Zingales (eds.), Recommendations on terms of service & human rights, Outcome Document n°1, 2015, tinyurl.com/toshr2015 8 See Zingales and Belli (2014). 4 This document is a DRAFT for comments, prepared by a working group of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility. Please share your comments on the mailing list of the Coalition or send them via email to luca.belli[at]fgv.br or nicolo.zingales[at]fgv.br The resulting Recommendations on Terms of Service and Human Rights9 (hereinafter “the Recommendations”) presented at the 2015 IGF demonstrated that the cross-disciplinary effort facilitated by the Coalition could lead to concrete outcomes, providing a sound response to all those arguing that the IGF is a mere talking shop, unable to achieve tangible outcomes. The Recommendations provide concrete evidence that the IGF can elaborate solid outputs, in line with the IGF mandate, which prescribes that the Forum shall “find solutions to the issues arising from the use and misuse of the Internet” as well as “identify emerging issues […] and, where appropriate, 10 make recommendations.” Indeed, the Recommendations served as an inspiration for (and were annexed to) both the study on Terms of Service and Human Rights11, co-sponsored by the Council of Europe and FGV Law School, and the 2017 outcome of the Coalition - a volume entitled ‘Platform regulations: how platforms are regulated and how they regulate us’, featuring research by an ample range of stakeholders .12 It also bears noting that the “platform responsibility” approach and a conspicuous number of elements of the Recommendations can be found in the Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries.13 Fostering this kind of multi-stakeholder and cross-institutional discussion is a core component of the vision behind the creation of the Coalition: to critically analyse challenging questions and collaborative develop potential solutions that, if deemed suitable and efficient, can inspire policymaking exercises.