"RDR Scorecard: How Amazon, Google, Meta, and more rank on human rights in 2022", 6 September 2022

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The sixth edition of RDR’s Scorecard evaluated the performance of 14 global platform companies, examining how their policies and practices affect users’ rights to free expression and privacy. The key findings show that, while there have been some improvements, all the companies are falling short, with none of them earning a passing grade. 

As we’ve done before, Access Now reached out to these companies to reinforce key recommendations from the Scorecard. Here are the recommendations we focused on for each company:

To date, we have only received responses from Yahoo, VK, Kakao, Meta, and Microsoft. 

We commend U.S.-based company Yahoo for its timely response describing how it puts its human rights commitments into action. Ranked second by RDR this year, Yahoo also earned the top score for privacy, although it must continue to strengthen its human rights practices following its acquisition by Apollo Global Management. 

VK, the Russia-based company formerly known as Mail.Ru, provided a brief response that pointed to its ESG reporting for information on how it handles government requests. However, VK needs to renew its human rights commitment...

We also heard from Kakao, the South Korea-based mobile messaging platform, which provided some information on its internal processes for handling human rights issues, including its newly formed Tech for Good Committee and its Human Rights and Tech Ethics Team. Kakao earned the highest score for non-U.S.-based platforms, and has improved over time, though it still has work to do to fully address human rights risks. 

... Meta, responded to specific aspects of its performance, noting that it is following up on some of the evaluation’s criteria. While doing so, Meta must continue to increase transparency on government requests for censorship. You can read RDR’s response to Meta here. 

Finally, we heard from... Microsoft, outlining its policies on privacy and free expression. For the first time, RDR evaluated LinkedIn and found that, although Microsoft is a leader in the tech field on some human rights issues, it has room to improve, particularly when it comes to their LinkedIn and Skype policies.

We ask the remaining nine companies to engage with civil society – do not ignore us. Increasing transparency and stakeholder engagement is core to the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) requirements for business.

Update: September 16 — Amazon responded to our letter, describing their approach to ongoing human rights evaluations.