[Dcpr] Related projects and due diligence recommendations

[N. Zingales]

Dear DCPR members,

Many thanks to all those who have helped us identifying and compiling the initiatives that are significantly similar or related to the DCPR.

Please find at the following link a Google doc with the list of the aforementioned initiatives: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UYM5zn0IeglQ7n_SnDP7ocwSbj2i7XnteqJUhjEfnfs/pubhtml
Do not hesitate to share on the mailing-list your comments and suggestions with regard to the compilation of related initiatives. This compilation will be kept up to date, in order to be used as a reference for our future work.

As anticipated in the email following the first DCPR meeting, the next step will be to devise a set of recommendations regarding online platforms' due diligence in human rights compliance. An initial draft will be elaborated by the DCPR coordinators jointly with any other interested member- which is kindly invited to contact us individually. In light of the limited timeframe (2 weeks), this first draft will mainly endeavour to bring together the elements of existing international human rights documents, and to stimulate comments and suggestions on practical ways to make different human rights effective in the context of online platforms. The initial draft will be circulated by 31 October to seek your comments over a one month comment period. Further to the inputs collected through the mailing list, a revised version will be circulated by 10 December, for a second round of comments and suggestions. The aim is to consolidate your comments and inputs into a final version to be finalised by the end of the calendar year.

We would like to highlight that these guidelines could be particularly important in the context of the public consultation for crowdsourcing of the Declaration of Internet Rights, which has been published on Monday by the Study Committee on Internet Rights and Duties of the Italian Parliament. The objective of this concrete multistakeholder initiative, undertaken by the Italian government during its presidency of the Council of the EU,  is to gather inputs from all stakeholders (from 27 October at http://camera.civi.ci) and reach a final text by the end of February.
The text, an English version of which can be found at the following link (http://nexa.polito.it/nexacenterfiles/declaration-of-internet-rights.pdf) includes a provision entitled "Rights and Safeguards of People on Platforms" which reads as follows:

"Digital platform operators are required to behave honestly and fairly in 
dealing with users, suppliers and competitors. 
Any person has the right to receive clear and simple information on how 
the platform operates, not to have contractual terms arbitrarily altered and not 
to be subjected to conduct that could make accessing the platform difficult or 
discriminatory. Any person shall be in any case notified of changes in 
contractual terms. In this case, they have the right to terminate the relationship, 
to receive a copy of the data concerning them in interoperable form and to have 
the data concerning them removed from the platform. 
Platforms that operate on the Internet, if they represent services essential 
to the lives and activities of people, shall facilitate conditions – in accordance 
with the principle of competition and under equal contractual terms – for the 
appropriate interoperability of their main technologies, functions and data with
other platforms".

As it is evident from a first reading, the article is a valuable effort to promote important values such as clarity and interoperability,  but falls short of any reference to the respect of human rights by digital platforms operators. This constitutes a valid opportunity for the DCPR to submit comments with reference to the guidelines elaborated over the next few weeks and find an immediate application of our joint work. Any suggestions concerning further deployment of the guidelines remains of course welcome.

Thanks in advance for your contributions!

Best regards,
Nicolo and Luca