Transnational Bodies

IMF: Global Economy Will Suffer Worst Year Since Depression

April 15, 2020

According to the International Monetary Fund ("IMF"), the global economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression, which will have a signifiant negative impact on the ability or willingness of businesses to fulfill their business and human rights commitments.
NY Post: Trump Administration Weighs Legal Action over Alleged Chinese Hoarding of PPE

April 08, 2020

According to the New York Post, in response to receiving news from leading U.S. manufacturers of medical safety gear that China prohibited them from exporting their products outside of China as the coronavirus pandemic mounted, the Trump Administration is weighing legal action against China for trying to corner the world market in personal protective equipment ("PPE").
Li: Balance Privacy Rights and Use of Personal Data for Global Public Health

April 08, 2020

Writing in Slate, Tiffany C. Li explains how to strike a balance between protecting privacy and using personal data-driven technology to address global health challenges.
Precise COVID-19 Patient Tracking Data Raises Privacy Concerns

April 06, 2020

As government officials in South Korea, Singapore and China rely on phone location data to carry out extremely precise and targeted “contact tracing” for people who test positive for the virus, in the U.S., the application of the same technology raises serious privacy and constitutional concerns.
Pro Publica: China Built a Twitter Propaganda Machine and Let It Loose on Coronavirus

April 01, 2020

Since August 2019, ProPublica has tracked more than 10,000 suspected fake Twitter accounts involved in a coordinated influence campaign with ties to the Chinese government, which Chinese authorities are using to spread propaganda relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cliffe: COVID-19 Bio-surveillance Measures May Threaten Freedom

April 01, 2020

Writing in NewStatesmanAmerica, Jeremy Cliffe explains whey the creation and distribution of bio-surveillance power in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic should be the primary concern of the friends of democracy and civil liberties.
Cheeseman: The Coronavirus Could Topple Governments Around the World

April 01, 2020

Writing in Foreign Policy, Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy and international development at the University of Birmingham, opines that the COVID-19 pandemic may have severe governance consequences in countries where political institutions are relatively weak and where the illness or death of a leader has been known to generate the kind of power vacuum that might inspire rival leaders, opposition parties, or the military to launch a power grab.
Carpenter: Preventing Liberty from Becoming a Coronavirus Fatality

April 01, 2020

In a recent commentary, Ted Carpenter, Senior Fellow for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, explains how collective public panic about the COVID-19 pandemic creates the danger that government measures designed to deal with the outbreak may lead to enormous collateral damage to the freedoms that Americans take for granted.
Pompeo: China, Russia, Iran are Spreading Disinformation about Coronavirus

March 24, 2020

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused China, Russia and Iran of carrying out disinformation campaigns relating to the coronavirus pandemic, in what is an apparent effort to sow fear and confusion.
Kampmark: COVID-19 is Resulting in a Pandemic Surveillance State

March 24, 2020

Writing in International Policy Digest, Binoy Kampmark explains how, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiologists are at the forefront of a new surveillance push, marked by a fierce boom in surveillance technologies dedicated to monitoring whole populations taking place.