Vidéo
09 February 2022

Fundamental Rights Forum 2021 - Fundamental rights in the digital age

The Fundamental Rights Forum 2021 was the space for dialogue on the human rights challenges facing the EU today. In this video, participants talk about the challenges of fundamental rights in the digital age.

Transcript

Michael O’Flaherty, Director, FRA: “We have to catch up, we have to catch up with the world. And here, of course, I'm referring to the digitalization of our lives. It's imperative that we meaningfully engage with artificial intelligence and digitalization.”

Vanja Skoric, Senior Legal Advisor, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law: “I mean, how can you know or foresee the risk if you did not assess the potential impact of this, right? So these obligations should come to AI developers, but also to AI users or deployers, especially in public institutions.”

Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation: “We're talking about more trustworthy AI. We're talking about making sure that there's a balance between technology and especially technology companies and us as citizens.”

Iain Levine, Senior Human Rights Advisor, Meta: “We're looking to find the right balance between freedom of expression and people's right to express themselves freely on the platform and the protection from harm that can come from hate speech and misinformation and violence incitements and other kinds of problematic speech.”

Anamaria Meshkurti, Programme Officer, Europe Office, International Telecommunications Union: “And it is fundamental, of course, for everyone to keep accessibility in their mind, especially those of you who are creating products. You need to really think of inclusivity, no matter at what cost it comes.”

Tytti Matsinen, Board Member, European Blind Union: “Especially in times of crisis, accessibility reveals its true value. For blind or partially sighted people, digital accessibility became indispensable as soon as the crisis started.”

Craig Dwyer, Campaigner: “It is also really important for us as human rights practitioners and as communicators that whilst these bad actors will continue to operate online on digital platforms, let's not lose sight of how it can also be a powerful force for good as well.”