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  1. V. Conclusion

V. Conclusion

Online and mobile communications have become ubiquitous for self-expression, sharing of information and ideas, and for publicizing human rights violations to the global community. The threat to that access and consequences for speaking up against the state are especially severe where the government exercises broad and unchecked power over telecommunications systems and the security of the people. The Assad regime developed an infrastructure of surveillance that has allowed the regime to exercise control over internet access and use, monitoring and filtering expressions that challenge or criticize the state. The regime has hacked and tracked critics and human rights defenders, deploying sophisticated and coordinated strategies for identifying dissidents and speech it finds a threat. This system of surveillance is part of a larger campaign of silencing and persecution. The human rights of the Syrian people have been and continue to be violated. The right to privacy, the freedom of expression and of participation, the right to life and freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman and

238 See Michael Pizzi, The Syrian Opposition Is Disappearing From Facebook, THE ATLANTIC (Feb. 4, 2014), available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/the-syrian-opposition-is-disappearing-from-facebook/283562/; Josh Halliday, Facebook Apologises for Deleting Free Speech Group’s Post on Syrian Torture, THE GUARDIAN (Jul. 6, 2012) available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/jul/06/facebook-apologises-free-speech-syria.

239 Pizzi, supra note 239 (““We continue our reporting attacks,” read a typical post from December 9 on the SEA’s Facebook Page. “Our next target is the Local Coordination Committee of Barzeh [a neighborhood in Damascus], the page that is a partner in shedding Syrian blood and provoking sectarian division.” It then provided two links to photos on the Barzeh page that could get the page taken down. Soon afterwards, the SEA removed its post as if it had never existed.”)

240 See Pizzi, supra note 239; Halliday, supra note 238.

241 Al-Modon, Facebook Deletes Accounts of Assad Opponents, The Syrian Observer (Jun. 8, 2020) available at: https://syrianobserver.com/EN/news/58430/facebook-deletes-accounts-of-assad-opponents.html; see also Facebook Has Been Bending to the Will of Arab Despots, The Economists (Jul. 2, 2020), available at: https://www.economist.com/middle-east-andafrica/2020/07/02/facebook-has-been-bending-to-the-will-of-arab-despots.

242 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, HRC Res. 17/4, Principle 17 (Jun. 16, 2011), available at: https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf.

degrading treatment and the right to seek a remedy are being systematically violated by a regime bent on control and domination.

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