Private Tech Sector Engagement with Global Civil Society

"Private tech sector engagement with civil society across the globe has been inadequate, inconsistent and often lacking appropriate practices."

This report, published by Internews, seeks to provide a clearer picture of the relationship between tech companies and civil society, which has been characterised by a power imbalance, and as a result affects the accountability and transparency of tech companies. The research highlighted in this report was conducted in 24 countries across the globe to identify, in particular, the specific shortcomings in the current engagement and consultation practices by private tech companies with civil society organisations (CSOs) in an effort to find solutions.

As explained in the report, "there is very limited research on current practices of civil society’s relationships with the private tech sector and their challenges, needs, and perspectives for successful engagement. This research addresses this gap and serves as a foundation for the work that organizations carry out on this issue over the medium term."

In addition, the report makes the point that "Tech companies know that their platforms have a global footprint with a reach capable of swaying elections and coordinating social unrest. They also know that it is impossible for engineers and product designers based in San Francisco, Dublin, or Berlin to have a holistic understanding of the needs and impacts of their platform in communities in the Majority World. It is time to correct the unequal relationship between these stakeholders to truly harness the importance of communicating, learning, and researching from civil society and local users. Otherwise, we are at risk of further digital colonialism and exacerbating existing global inequalities."

Researchers interviewed civil society and community representatives across the following 24 countries: Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Russia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. They sought to answer the following questions:

• How can private sector technology companies engage in a more productive relationship with civil society? What are the current engagement practices of civil society stakeholders with the private tech sector?
• What are the main challenges for civil society in its engagement with the private sector in terms of access, compensation, confidentiality, language, feedback loops, and more?
• What are the needs and preferences of civil society to result in positive outcomes?
• What role(s) can civil society play in shaping industry standards that better align a profit motive with rights-based values and approaches?
• What are the recommendations for impactful next steps to build on this research project and its findings?
• What sorts of approaches have been recommended or implemented for civil society to respond to rapid changes and adapt for the future to avoid further exclusion?

The report shares the findings of the research for each of the countries and offers country-specific recommendations for moving forward. Common findings that surfaced across different countries include:

• The nature of engagement of private tech companies is ad hoc and lacks consistency.
• A hierarchy of interest and attention to countries is determined by global media coverage so that partnerships vary on a country-by-country basis.
• Engagement is with only a few companies, and there are tendencies for tokenism when engaging with CSOs, overburdening already-resource-limited CSOs. In addition, no transparency or structure is made available showing how members of civil society are approached by the tech sector.
• Often, English is used as the only language of communication, especially for meetings and conferences to address the issue, which leaves out many grassroots organisations that operate in non-English languages.
• Engaging with technology companies exposes CSOs to new threats, such as state surveillance.
• There is a lack of context-specific information. While the most powerful tech companies are global, they are not based in the countries where the large majority of their users live, creating a physical, linguistic, and cultural disconnect with the local context.
• Meta was found to be the platform most engaged with CSOs; however, there have been no meaningful changes.

In order to address the current imbalance, the report makes the point that "effective transformation requires a systemic framework of industry standards for collaboration using an integrated and intersectional approach based on a deeper understanding of the distinctive nature of technology's roles in local communities and contexts. This is particularly true in fragile and conflict settings where the harms of technology are magnified and vulnerable minorities are under greater threat." It concludes with a set of general recommendations (although each country chapter offers country-specific recommendations). They include, for example:

• Establish tech company focal teams and sustainable points of contact for each country of operation.
• Include local expertise in decision-making.
• Compensate civil society consultations, and establish standards for doing so.
• Ensure that private tech companies provide greater transparency on their operations and content moderation processes, whether through the use of professionals or algorithms, including how content is assessed.
• Make tech support available in each country and in local languages.
• Provide customised and contextualised courses for civil society in each country to enable users to understand the benefits and support tech companies can provide and to assess successful practices, helpful tools, and products.
• Conduct systemic, context-specific, and people-centred research that produces data that are intersectional (differentiated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, etc.) so as to enable more structured and consistent engagement and collaboration with local civil society.
• Create an independent global coalition using a multi-stakeholder and multilayered approach that would include regional organisations (both at the grassroots and national levels), the international digital rights community, the private sector, and government representatives.
• Engage tech businesses in creating a group of experts to offer feedback on the design of platforms (e.g., if you had to redesign this platform, what works, what does not work, etc.) and to create prototypes.