GENEVA(National Times)- The space for freedom of expression is shrinking dramatically as many countries, abetted by new technologies and digital giants, suppress dissent and as artificial intelligence runs “amok”, a UN expert warned on Wednesday.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression highlighted that the ongoing conflation of state and corporate interests was weakening that freedom. “Freedom of opinion and expression, a fundamental inalienable human right, has been privatised, monetised, manipulated, and unlawfully restricted,” the independent expert warned. Delivering her final report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Kahn called out Washington’s efforts to impact how other countries regulate AI and tech giants.

“Protecting freedom of expression requires States to uphold human rights,” she said. But “when the world’s most powerful government asserts its political and economic weapons, from tariffs to sanctions, to dissuade other states from regulating its digital platforms and AI companies, then freedom of expression becomes fodder for geopolitics, a commodity for trade.” Kahn and other special rapporteurs are mandated by the rights council, but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations. She said that while the digital age had been “transformative”, it had come “at significant social cost,… (borne) by women threatened by online violence (and) children whose health and safety are endangered online”.

Others feeling the pinch, she said, were “journalists whose livelihoods are destroyed by platforms who refuse to share value, and the public whose capacity to form independent opinions is degraded by information environments polluted by hate and lies”.