“I have written this report on freedom of expression and elections because I’m deeply concerned that there is a perfect storm that is destroying both our right to vote and our freedom of expression at the same time,” said Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.

At the 59^th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Khan presented a report on the key vulnerabilities of the right to freedom of expression in electoral contexts in the digital age.

The report draws information from extensive consultations led by Khan over the past year, including with civil society organizations, electoral institutions, human rights defenders, journalists, and representatives of social media companies.

For Khan, there are three major trends threatening freedom of expression: a toxic political climate marked by authoritarian tendencies and the backsliding of human rights and democracies, social media flooded by disinformation and hate, and weakened traditional media being attacked and unable to debunk lies.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Khan warned that when freedom of expression is suppressed, electoral processes are endangered and public trust in elections suffers.

“Election integrity and information integrity are closely connected,” she said. “Safe, free and fair elections require healthy, open information spaces in which accurate and independent information is easily accessible to the electorate.”

According to Khan’s findings, populist politicians and authoritarian governments have resorted to information manipulation, with digital technology and platforms enabling and amplifying these tendencies into an overload of disinformation, misinformation and hate speech.

UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk has also spoken on elections and human rights. In his vision statement, Human Rights: A Path for Solutions, he said that elections are a litmus test of civic space and of effective governance.

“Polls are being conducted in an era where both deepfakes and disinformation can be generated more easily and effectively,” Türk said. “In a context where the politics of distraction and division, as well as violence, are becoming familiar precursors to the ballot. States and societies cannot afford to fail this test.”

According to Khan’s report, information manipulation is frequently used as a tactic to restrict the participation of opposition candidates.

While States have long weaponized criminal law to silence dissent, Khan said that influencers and artificial intelligence now represent a new frontier in this battle.

“Unlike journalists, influencers are not bound by professional standards. Influencers may also be susceptible to coercion by political candidates,” Khan said. “The impact of artificial intelligence tools on the right to freedom of opinion and expression in electoral contexts could have deep consequences for democracy.”

The report also warns about a widespread political rhetoric that dehumanizes and stigmatizes people because of their ethnicity, race, religion, language, sex, gender or sexual orientation, even in liberal democracies. 

The way ahead

Through her report, Khan issued a series of recommendations, amongst which are States refraining from Internet shutdowns, disruptions and the blocking of platforms or websites, as such actions are inherently disproportionate.

Khan called for reversing the decline in media and investing in independent, public-interest news outlets.

“States should consider decriminalizing libel and cyber-libel offences,” Khan said. “The report emphasizes the urgent need for investment in independent public interest news media.

In turn, political parties should adopt and enforce codes of conduct.

“Candidates and parties must be transparent regarding their transactional relationships with social media influencers,” Khan said.

To social media companies, Khan recommended they set basic global standards for elections in all jurisdictions and apply them consistently and fairly.

“Platforms should conduct heightened human rights due diligence and impact assessments of content moderation and curation policies ahead of elections and must ensure that their content curation, moderation and takedown policies are aligned with international human rights standards,” Khan said.

During the presentation of the report, Khan said that undermining freedom of expression in the name of fighting disinformation is short-sighted and counterproductive.

“Freedom of expression is vital to healthy democratic discourse,” she said.

However, she said that this doesn’t mean that States cannot restrict harmful manipulation of information but that any restriction must legal, necessary, proportionate and have a legitimate objective.

“Experience has shown that multifaceted, multi-stakeholder strategies grounded in human rights and combining a range of legal and non-legal measures are the most effective way to fight disinformation and other forms of information manipulation,” Khan said.

Unless all these factors are urgently addressed the right to expression, as well as the right to vote will be damaged deeply, Khan concluded.