Terms of Services of 50 online platforms analysed: human rights, freedom of expression, privacy, and due process

The Centre for Technology and Society of Fundação Getulio Vargas Rio de Janeiro Law School (CTS/FGV) carried out a project ‘Terms of Services and Human Rights’ between September 2014 and March 2016. Within the project they have analysed the Terms of Services of 50 online platforms, looking into how they deal with the human rights to, freedom of expression, privacy, and due process. As a result CTS/FGV published the report ‘Terms of service and human rights: an analysis of online platform contracts’ which is partly based on the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users. According to the CoE’s Director of Information Society and Action against Crime, Jan Kleijssen, this report represents ‘a valuable source for the CoE’s human rights work on intermediary liability algorithms and the development standards for blocking, filtering, and takedown of illegal Internet content’. Moreover, as the research originated from a partnership with the Dynamic Coalition on Platform Responsibility of the United Nations’ Internet Governance Forum, Kleijssen emphasised the importance of including academic communities in the field of the information society as well as other mutistakeholder partnerships as essential for the CoE’s Internet Governance Strategy 2016-2019.