Doha: Societies around the world are witnessing rapid transformations due to digital technologies, which pose increasingly complex challenges to the protection of individual privacy and the preservation of fundamental freedoms, most notably freedom of expression, access to information, and non-discrimination.
According to Qatar News Agency, the UN and its specialized agencies in 2025 promoted a human rights-based approach to addressing digital challenges, emphasizing the need to avoid overregulation to build international cooperation that ensures transparency and accountability. On July 7, 2025, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk affirmed in a statement that “digital technologies rapidly reshape every aspect of society” but pose serious risks, from restrictions on free expression and privacy violations to discrimination and growing threats to our shared sense of truth and reality.
“States’ legal obligations and companies’ duties to respect human rights offer guidance to tackle disinformation and protect our data from illicit use,” Turk stressed.
The World Economic Forum 2025 (WEF 2025) analysis highlights that misinformation and disinformation are the top short-term global risks, calling for a pragmatic balance between digital safety and freedom of expression on platforms. A June 2025 report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) warned of a widening rights gap if artificial intelligence (AI) and big data systems are not governed under frameworks based on rights and non-discrimination.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) emphasized in its March 2025 update of the Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms that transparency, accountability, and a multi-stakeholder approach are prerequisites for ensuring a space that preserves freedom of expression, protects privacy, and combats digital harm.
In the same context, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a legal expert in the field of digital rights Peter Micek stressed in exclusive statements to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the increasing demand for personal data to feed AI models threatens privacy in unprecedented ways, pointing out that individuals lack sufficient tools to understand and exercise their rights in the digital age.
He explained that the rush toward so-called “AI in everything” gives tech companies and governments a new pretext to collect as much data as possible on individuals, indicating that developers of AI tools have not yet demonstrated sufficient understanding or respect for human rights or applicable legislation.
Micek added that laws that protect data and restrict government surveillance remain relevant in the age of AI. However, these laws will only be effective if individuals are free to use them and are aware of how they can be leveraged, emphasizing that the first step is clarity over who controls sensitive information so that the law can be enforced and rights can be respected.
Micek called on policymakers to review how privacy and data protection laws apply to AI and to address legislative gaps in consultation with civil society organizations, ensuring a balance between the demands of digital innovation and the protection of fundamental rights.