Technology & Civic Space

Technology is reshaping civic space by providing new tools and spaces to exercise the freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. But these same tools also provide new opportunities for governments and private actors to increase surveillance and restrict rights.

ICNL works closely with our global network of partners to develop international, regional, and national legal standards to ensure that new technologies protect basic freedoms and allow civil society to flourish. ICNL also builds the capacity of civil society to better understand how emerging tech works and ways new tech may affect civic freedoms. Increasing their tech fluency enables our partners to work with technologists and governments to craft polices and products that protect fundamental freedoms.

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Our Impact Globally

2024 in Numbers

CSO partners trained:

150+

Legal resources created:

20+

Contributions to regional and international internet governance processes:

30+

Digital Africa map

Helping National Rights Bodies Protect Digital Rights

National Human Rights Institutions play a vital role in promoting human rights, but they have yet to comprehensively address rights in the digital space. ICNL sought to tackle this gap in Africa by creating a Toolkit designed for African NHRIs and is now working to ensure that NHRIs effectively operationalize it in their work.

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Internet Governance: From Local to Global

2024 was a big year for global internet governance. ICNL amplified local partners’ voices by organizing learning calls and developing resources to increase their understanding of the evolving ecosystem. ICNL then facilitated joint submissions to support their contributions to key processes at the UN and other multilateral forums.

What We Do

Group photo from the ICNL-EngageMedia capacity-building session

Bridging the Knowledge Gap

From data protection to online content restrictions, ICNL provides its partners with capacity building opportunities so they can better understand and act upon emerging threats to digital rights.

ICNL recently worked with EngageMedia to advance Indonesian civil society’s knowledge of artificial intelligence, the strengths and weaknesses of different governance models, and the current AI global governance landscape.

Supporting Research

Quality research is essential for decisionmakers to understand the impacts of emerging technologies and to enact legislation that is suitably targeted and proportionate.

ICNL leverages its global experience to help inform partners’ research initiatives, such as our work in Nepal or with the Asia Center on its recent report on the rise in technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Cambodia.

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Norm-Setting

ICNL actively engages in UN processes, the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) Advisory Network, and regional human rights bodies with the goal of advancing rights-based norms and inclusive approaches in digital governance. We also co-chair the FOC’s Task Force on AI and Human Rights.

In the last year, ICNL contributed to two norm-setting processes led by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and helped our partner in Ecuador do the same.

Key Resources

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CIVICSPACE.TECH

This interactive resource aims to expand tech literacy amongst civil society and development professionals. It explains how emerging technologies are relevant to civic space, details the risks and opportunities if you decide to use them, and covers broader technology trends in democracy, human rights and governance.

UN Global Digital Compact

This global framework for digital cooperation was adopted by UN Member States in 2024 and includes concrete commitments for States and other stakeholders on human rights, data governance, artificial intelligence, and more.

ICNL participated in the Compact consultative process throughout 2024 – see our submission here. We also helped draft and co-signed a Civil Society Joint Statement that highlighted weaknesses in the final text and made recommendations for implementation.

enhancing digital civic space through the OGP process: principles and recommendations for enabling reforms

ENHANCING DIGITAL CIVIC SPACE THROUGH THE OGP PROCESS

This ICNL guide offers a checklist of principles to help states enact digital policies that enhance civic space. It also includes recommendations for OGP commitments and examples of positive practices and policies that OGP members are already undertaking.

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Navigating the Risks of Digital ID Systems

The SDGs call on States to provide legal identity for all as a means to bridge socio-economic divides. Many Governments, in turn, have been moving quickly to adopt advanced digital ID programs, without assessing the array of risks. This resource, created in cooperation with the Open Government Partnership, provides guidance to inform investments in these powerful systems.

Screenshot of ICNL's digital rights online course

Free Online Advocacy Course

ICNL has partnered with Advocacy Assembly to offer an online course that demystifies international human rights law and how it applies to the digital space. It features a mix of video, slides, interactive quizzes, and real world examples, including lessons learned from one of ICNL’s partners in Tanzania. This course is free, easy to navigate, and only takes one hour to complete!

More Recent ICNL Work

ICNL Helps Inform Oversight Board Decision on Peru: Meta’s oversight body recently cited ICNL’s input in a decision that helped protect a human rights defender who was targeted on social media.

Blueprint on Information Integrity Online: ICNL contributed substantial written and oral inputs to the “Blueprint on Information Integrity Online,” a Freedom Online Coalition guide to navigate challenges posed by the profound complexities of the online information ecosystem.

Other Useful Resources

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Artificial Intelligence

Freedom Online Coalition Statement on AI and Human Rights: Issued at the Internet Governance Forum in June 2025, this statement establishes human rights as the foundation for AI governance, with 21 countries endorsing it and more expected to follow.

• The World According to ChatGPT: This short piece examines how GhatGPT and similar tools might affect civic space and democracy in the coming years – both by creating new issues and exacerbating existing problems.

• How Can AI Amplify Civic Freedoms? The future of democracy is entangled with AI. This ICNL piece examines ways that it can be used to strengthen civic space.

For more on how AI impacts human rights, check out ICNL’s freedom of expression page.

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Online Privacy

• U.S. Current Trend: Surveillance Technologies: This article examines surveillance technologies that have implications for protestors in the United States, including cell-site simulators, facial recognition software, and drones and other aerial equipment.

• COVID-19: The Surveillance Pandemic: During the pandemic, some governments incorporated surveillance technology in their efforts to halt the disease’s spread. While the use of all the tools at hand is understandable, emergencies do not exempt states’ from their human rights obligations. This piece examines some of instances of overreach.

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UN Special Rapporteur Materials

Assembly and Association Rights in the Digital Age (2019): In this report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Voule, focuses on the opportunities and challenges facing these rights in the digital age. 

Internet Shutdowns and Freedom of Association and Assembly (2021): This report is a key resource for governments, companies, international institutions, and civil society working to end Internet shutdowns.

All Technology & Civic Space Related Resources

Explore our full resource collection, which includes reports, legal analysis, and curated collections of materials covering an array of issues impacting civic space around the world.