The Freedom Online Coalition is a group of 34 governments that work together to advance

Internet freedom Internet freedom is an umbrella term that encompasses digital rights, freedom of information, the right to Internet access, freedom from Internet censorship, and net neutrality. Some believe that Internet freedom is not a human right. They think t ...

, mainly through shaping global norms through Joint Statements, multistakeholder engagement with their Advisory Network and through coordinating diplomatic initiatives and interventions at relevant international forums. The Freedom Online Coalition was launched at a conference of the

Dutch Government The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy, and a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekke, ...

in The Hague, the Netherlands in December 2011. Participating countries commit to "promoting the freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly with respect to the Internet and connection technologies". They endorse the principle that the human rights that people have offline should enjoy the same protection online, including

freedom of assembly Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...

and the

right to organize Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

and the right to be protected from "arbitrary" intrusions into their

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

. Its work builds on the resolution on "The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet" adopted by

United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

in July 2012. The coalition has also endorsed a set of recommendations for cybersecurity policy making that respects human rights as well as a definition of cybersecurity. The group has held annual meetings in The Netherlands (2011), Kenya (2012), Tunisia (2013), Estonia (2014), Mongolia (2015), Costa Rica (2016), Germany (2018), Ghana (2020), and Finland (2021). The group has 34 member countries (2021). In 2022, the Chairship of the Freedom Online Coalition is held by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

and the chairing advisors are Bernard Shen,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

and Mallory Knodel,

Center for Democracy and Technology Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for pur ...

(formerly representing ARTICLE 19).

References

External links

Freedom Online Coalition
official website Global policy organizations Human rights organizations {{International-org-stub