Information technology has become integrated as a natural part of people’s day-to-day lives throughout the world. The internet and social media have thus become part of the economic and social fabric, presenting both opportunities and challenges to sustainability. The Council on Ethics launched a new proactive international collaborative project with a number of investors to engage in dialogues with big tech companies, the aim being to persuade them to strengthen and adapt their human rights practices.
Background
Tech companies need to understand and manage risks linked to human rights and social impact in a responsible way, to ensure long-term sustainability in their operations. Big tech companies, including Alphabet (Google), Meta Platforms (Facebook) and Microsoft, are creating significant opportunities by making information available to the public. This is helping to advance, for example, human rights, democracy and an open society, but it also raises new questions.
Sustainability challenges are linked to complex issues, such as management and commercialisation of personal data, extremism and terrorism, election rigging and other serious impacts on vulnerable people and groups at risk, particularly children and young people. Other challenges concern data management and the dissemination of opinions; effects of content moderation that may lead to discrimination, and the circulation of one-sided opinions that can lead to polarisation and human rights abuses. At a systemic level, challenges exist regarding corporate risk management in order to protect democracy and healthy social structures.
Legislators and regulators have struggled to establish regulatory and governance systems to keep up with the rapid pace of technological development. Tech companies have grown rapidly in a relatively short period of time; their businesses are dynamic, diversified, global and technologically complex. In many cases, the root causes of risks to human rights may be traced to the companies’ business models, corporate culture, governance and remuneration conditions.
Objectives for the project
The project is based on a framework developed by the Council on the basis of the expectations document produced jointly by the Council and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), Tech giants and human rights: Investor expectations. The document outlines the long-term expectations of the Council and other investors as to how the tech sector is to work strategically on human rights. The Council’s objective for the project is to persuade the tech companies to strengthen and adapt their human rights sustainability practices such as to bring their activities into line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). Another aim is to help companies focus more closely on understanding and managing systemic risks associated with the use and role of the internet platforms in society.
Outcome 2023
Collaboration between stakeholders usually increases the potential to promote positive change, especially in complex and global issues such as the impact of big tech companies on human rights. For this reason, when determining the scope, structure and objectives of the collaborative project, the Council consulted several investors with a lot of experience in the relevant field and other experts to ensure issues were aligned with recognised best practices and to avoid unnecessary duplication. The Council also built a strong investor network ahead of the launch and announced the partnership in March 2023 with the support of over 30 other large institutional investors, representing more than EUR 7 trillion in assets under management.
Exploiting synergies between different stakeholders has remained a cornerstone of the Human Rights and Tech Companies project throughout 2023. The Council organised three knowledge-building seminars for the international investors involved in the project and for the AP Funds’ asset management organisations. The Council
also maintained active contact with investor initiatives with a similar focus and presented to the UN’s B-Tech Project on three occasions.
In 2023, the Council appointed the investors who would lead the company dialogues and those that would participate in each dialogue group. This process took place for all seven companies involved in the project. As of the end of 2023, initial talks had been held with three companies.
Next steps
Going forward, the focus is on the company dialogues, continued activities to promote collaboration, skills-building initiatives and mapping the companies’ progress in relation to the established objectives.