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Human Rights Online: New Dimension or 
Challenge to Modern International Law?

Olga KYRYLIUK

I. INTRODUCTION

The issue of human rights protection is probably as old as the international law itself. It may seem that everything has been said in this key field of international relations. World nations have long ago negotiated on fundamental principles and minimum standards of basic human rights. Key documents have been adopted providing general legal framework for the sphere concerned. Though rapid development of information and communication technologies (hereinafter - “ICTs”) revealed new dimension of human rights, as well as provided more opportunities for exercising thereof. Universal access to cyberspace1 is treated by some scholars not only as an instrument that facilitates the promotion of human rights, but as a separate right itself. Thus, access to Internet is getting much more value than being a simple technological pre-condition for more developed countries to provide another venue for exercising human rights.

When it comes to human rights agenda governments have both positive and negative obligations (to avoid infringements). On the one hand, they shall provide guarantees for the protection of human rights. But at the same time they are probably the most malicious infringers thereof. Unlike other stakeholders governments appear to be in the most powerful position to abuse human rights. Internet started as anarchy, and now it is to a large extent divided between several big private corporations. Governments are quick to impose legal restrictions on private companies with regard to collection and processing of information, but don’t chase to limit or regulate at all their activity of transferring that data to the state enforcement authorities. Economic pressure is the reason for not solving the surveillance problem. But the governments are not putting their hands directly into mass surveillance. Private companies, which collect huge amounts of information including personal data, are doing that. The governments just want a copy thereof.

According to the Guardian Facebook confirmed that government requests for data and demands for content to be taken down surged in the first half of 2015. Government requests for account data globally jumped 18% in the first half of 2015. The amount of content restricted for violating local law more than doubled compared with the same period in the second half of 2014 to 20,568 pieces of content. Most government requests related to criminal cases, such as robberies or kidnappings. The government often requested basic subscriber information, IP addresses or account content, including people’s posts online. The bulk of government requests came from US law enforcement agencies. France, Germany and Britain also made up a large percentage of the requests and had far more content restricted in 2015. India and Turkey were responsible for most of the content taken down for violating local laws2.