Lead tech and communications companies, human rights organizations, investors and academics united against censorship and the violation of the freedom of expression and privacy rights in an effort they called the Global Network Initiative (GNI). The purpose of the initiative is to protect these rights that are often broken by domestic laws and political pressure on all continents. Search giants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are among the founding members, together with Human Rights First, Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, but also the Electronic Frontier Foundation, University of California Berkeley School of Information, World Press Committee and others.

The unprecedented collaboration is the accomplishment of two years of continuous efforts from all members to establish a set of principles to protect the use of Internet worldwide, the rights of Internet users worldwide, but also to protect the companies that are often forced to comply with regulations and politics that are against the international human rights laws and standards of freedom of expression and privacy.

For example, according to GNI’s guidelines, the companies that have adhered to the initiative will employ human rights impact assessments to identify the circumstances when freedom of expression and privacy may be jeopardized or advanced. Furthermore, the companies will encourage government demands that are consistent with international laws and standards, but at the same time, they will require governments seeking to restrict communications or remove content to follow the domestic legal processes. The companies will also assess and attempt to minimize the negative impact of the government’s demands on human rights and freedom of expression.

The users will also need to be notified when the companies are forced to remove content or limit access under the law. In addition to that, the companies will also need to disclose to users the procedures they need to follow if they wish to respond to government demands to remove or limit access to content or restrict communications.

“Protecting freedom of expression and privacy in a climate of rapidly changing technologies, products and services is a complex and constantly evolving task, so collaboration among participants to lobby governments, dialogue with stakeholders in local markets and share learning from their experience will be critical to the success of the initiative.” (GNI)

The initiative comes at a time when we hear more and more about freedom of speech or privacy violations, despite the fact that there are so many organizations out there promoting these rights and demanding governments to respect them.

As Google Director of Global Public Policy Andrew McLaughlin pointed out, more groups working together for this common goal are more likely to succeed than a company acting alone. We live in a world where access to information is essential, but we also live in a world where access to information is restricted, and users needed such an initiative.