Navigating digital human rights in the age of AI: challenges, theoretical perspectives, and research implications

Abstract

Background " . . .we must learn to better curtail harmful use of digital technology and to better unleash its power as a democratizing force and an enabler."António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations According to the United Nation (UN) Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation (United Nations Secretary General, n.d.), "Human rights apply both online and offline.Digital technologies provide new means to exercise human rights, but they are too often used to violate human rights.Data protection and privacy, digital identity, the use of surveillance technologies, online violence and harassment, are of particular concern."Similarly, the Institute of Internet & the Just Society (Internet Justice Society, n.d.), asserts that " . . .digital rights are human rights as applicable in the digital sphere.That is human rights in both physically constructed spaces, such as infrastructure and devices, and in spaces that are virtually constructed, like our online identities and communities."A decade ago, Mathiesen (2014, p. 7) argued that "[w]hile we can approach many kinds of human rights (e.g., the right to work, the right to vote, the right to health care) from the digital perspective, most obviously we should apply this lens to human rights related to information communication, access, and control."Mathieson further suggested that this right is based upon the "primary rights of expression and access to information."The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how digital technologies can be a powerful enabler of social inclusion, providing broader access to resources and information (BMJ Open, 2021; United Nations, 2021a).However, barriers to technological inclusion -such as limited technological literacy and challenges related to the accessibility of devices and internet services -continue to pose significant obstacles.Meanwhile, the rise of consumerfacing Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing the human rights landscape (van Dijk, 2021).AI is rapidly becoming integral to the digital ecosystem, embedded in devices, search engines, and a wide range of online platforms.The relationship between human rights and digital technology is a recent focus in academic literature.It was during events like the Arab Spring and the "Facebook Revolution" that researchers began examining how information and communication technologies influence grassroots politics and social movements, contribute to the development of new human rights This article has been corrected with minor changes.These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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