« Without Interference »: State Sponsored Digital Disinformation and the Corporate Responsibility to Respect

Abstract

In 2021, the media outlet France24 reported on allegations against authorities in Madagascar bankrolling teams to create fake profiles on Facebook.com, which then share biased or false information to criticize and discredit journalists and opposition leaders among other goals. This phenomenon mirrors a larger trend of States using digital disinformation as part of broader politically motivated attacks on the credibility of perceived dissenting voices. While disinformation is an old tactic, the scale to which digital technology has enabled its spread is unprecedented and poses serious challenges to democracy and human rights. Considering their ever-growing ubiquity, social media companies such as Facebook, Inc. play a major role in these challenges. This paper undertakes a case study of state-sponsored digital disinformation in Madagascar through a business and human rights approach, to derive a normative-empirical analysis on the scope and extent of Facebook, Inc.’s responsibilities regarding the information content of its social media platform and the right to freedom of expression. The research aimed to as accurately as possible situate Facebook on a responsibility scale going from not involved to complicit in the context of the case, and found the company responsible insofar as it is directly involved with such impacts as individual self-censorship and overall pull down on civic space and the public debate in Madagascar. Moreover, the company’s insufficient and selective HRDD demonstrate a lacking commitment in making the decisions and investments necessary to ensure respect for human rights, despite a recent step in the right direction with the publication of their human rights policy.