Statement for public release
9 November 2023
The Christchurch Call Advisory Network (CCAN) consists of not-for-profit organizations and individuals from civil society, academia, and the technical community convened as part of the Christchurch Call. CCAN exists to provide expert advice on implementing the commitments of the Call in a manner consistent with international human rights law and a free, open, and secure internet.
The current conflict between Israel and Hamas has seen behaviour by the actors in the conflict, governments, social media platforms, and others that is inconsistent with the Christchurch Call commitments. While non-signatories to the Call cannot be held to those commitments, governments and other entities who are signatories should adhere to the commitments.
The Christchurch Call Advisory Network urges actors in the conflict, platforms, and governments to:
- Ensure that all people in the region have continuous access to the Internet and digital communications platforms without human-initiated outages, consistent with the Call’s commitment to “free, open and secure Internet and international human rights law”, and for actors not to interfere with this access unless it is in full compliance with the requirements of the applicable human rights instruments;
- Neither force the removal of content that is within the bounds of free expression, nor destroy content that contains evidence of possible criminal war activity;
- Exercise great care in their use of social media, and not allow their social media accounts to disseminate false information;
- Include civil society in crisis response as early as possible;
- Apply human rights standards and support frameworks to reduce amplification of terrorist content on the Internet.
Signed,
Christchurch Call Advisory Network
