Technology's encroachment on freedom is met with resistance from Amnesty International
In the digital age, the use of technologies offers immense possibilities, but they also pose a grave threat to human rights when employed as means of social control, mass surveillance, and discrimination. This is a concern that Amnesty International, a leading human rights organisation, has been addressing for over a decade.
Amnesty's focus on digital rights has evolved from general human rights advocacy to increasingly spotlighting abuses linked to digital technologies and surveillance. The organisation's current concerns emphasise illegal surveillance, spyware, censorship, and the erosion of digital privacy and freedom.
One of the most significant examples of Amnesty's work in this area is their 2024 report, "A Digital Prison," which highlighted Serbian authorities' use of illegal spyware against civil society actors and journalists. This case, which they helped expose with technical analysis by Amnesty’s Security Lab, illustrates their transition into technical forensic work to uncover digital human rights abuses.
Currently, Amnesty is focused on several core issues: mass surveillance and illegal wiretapping agreements, the use of digital tools to repress dissent and target human rights defenders, the intersection of technology and systemic discrimination, and pushing back against companies providing surveillance technology that enables human rights abuses.
One example of mass surveillance is a 2025 pact in Indonesia granting prosecutors direct access to cellular communication data without proper legal safeguards like court orders, threatening privacy and freedom of expression. Similarly, a wave of digital attacks on activists in Indonesia in 2025 after social media criticism of government officials underscores the use of digital tools to repress dissent.
In the realm of systemic discrimination, Amnesty has critiqued the use of facial recognition technology in conflict zones like Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, arguing that such technology fragments and controls populations. The organisation has also been successful in pushing back against companies like Cellebrite, who have committed to stopping the use of their digital forensics against human rights after legal battles supported by Amnesty.
Amnesty International also participates in networks like European Digital Rights (EDRi), collaborating with over 50 organisations to advocate for safe digital landscapes protecting democracy and planet-wide rights in technological contexts.
In France, the use of surveillance technologies is on the rise, potentially at the expense of human rights commitments. Some political leaders have publicly expressed their desire to see facial recognition deployed, and there are examples of surveillance tools present in French public spaces, such as experiments with facial recognition, the use of drones during demonstrations, and the legalization of algorithmic video surveillance for the 2024 Olympic Games.
The European Union, with its 27 members, has prioritised the interests of the sector and law enforcement agencies over the protection of individuals and their human rights in the AI Act. This legislation lacks adequate provisions for accountability or transparency, and it does not ensure equal protection for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Furthermore, the AI Act does not prohibit the dangerous use and export of draconian AI technologies.
Guaranteeing security cannot come at the expense of freedoms. The question of necessity must be considered from the conception to the use of technologies. Amnesty International's digital rights work reflects this sentiment, as they continue to campaign against authoritarian digital surveillance, illegal data extraction, censorship, and technology-facilitated discrimination.
Technology, in the wrong hands, can be used as a means of social control, mass surveillance, and discrimination, as illustrated in Amnesty International's 2024 report, "A Digital Prison," which exposed the illegal use of spyware by Serbian authorities against civil society actors and journalists.
Amnesty International is currently focused on pushing back against the use of digital tools to repress dissent and target human rights defenders, including the misuse of facial recognition technology in conflict zones like Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
