Dr Stylianou co-authors major report on online terms of service and human rights

The Centre for Technology and Society, at FGV Law School, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has recently published the results of a two-year project in a report titled Terms of Service and Human Rights.

Dr Stylianou served as one of the two co-directors of the first phase of the project and helped author the final report.

The project was developed between September 2014 and March 2016, and analyzed the terms of service of 50 popular online platforms (including services by Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and others), by assessing their compatibility with freedom of expression, privacy, and due process. The research originated from a partnership with the Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility (DCPR) of the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

The project involved the analysis of the terms of service of 50 online platforms by three independent teams of analysts, whose interim results were checked and weighted against each other, and whose final results were analysed against various authoritative international legal texts issued among others by the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and others.

The results of the project were discussed in several national and international events such as the conference for the International Human Rights Day held by the Council of Europe in Brussels in December 2014, the World Forum for Democracy, promoted by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in November 2015, and the international conference “Human Rights in the Digital Environment: Perspectives on Terms of Service” held at FGV Rio de Janeiro Law School in December 2014.

The full report is accessible here.