Freedom Online Coalition releases 2023 end-of-year report

The 38-country coalition, led by the United States in 2023, released the report on Thursday. The report said the FOC last year focused on countering authoritarianism, promoting freedom of information, promoting inclusion, and developing safeguards for artificial intelligence.

What exactly has this committee done, though? The report said the FOC released several documents and statements. The FOC described one of them, the “Guiding Principles on Government Use of Surveillance Technologies,” as a “voluntary and non-legally binding” collection of principles for how governments should respect democratic rights online. The FOC also issued a “Joint Statement on Internet Shutdowns and Elections” condemning any use of internet shutdowns to interfere with elections.

How long has this coalition been around? U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken discussed the FOC in remarks delivered last September. He said internet access had greatly expanded since the organization was founded more than a decade ago.

Dig deeper: Read Ted Kluck’s column in WORLD Opinions discussing The Holdovers and how it shows what the internet has taken from us.