Citing New Evidence of Backsliding by Tech Companies, Investors Reiterate Call for Robust Safeguards to Protect Users' Digital Rights
Amid the unchecked rise of Gen AI, global conflict, and threats to democracy worldwide, the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights Index reveals how most tech companies are failing to keep pace, exposing billions of users to human rights risks.
NEW YORK, NY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2025 – In response to the latest RDR Index: Big Tech Edition, which benchmarks transparency, governance, algorithmic accountability, and data protection, investors expressed dismay at Big Tech’s lack of progress over the past three years and continued failure to meet human rights commitments.
The Index evaluates the policies of 14 global digital platform companies headquartered in the U.S. (Amazon, Apple, X, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft), China (Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent), Korea (Samsung and Kakao), and Russia (VK and Yandex).
Assessing 43 services like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Siri, which billions use daily, the benchmark highlights that companies continue to train AI models on user data without offering opt-out options and fail to protect users from targeted advertising risks.
For the third time, no company scored above 50%, though most showed some progress. Chinese companies, spurred by regulatory pressure, outpaced their peers in transparency. In contrast, U.S. tech firms maintain a ‘business as usual’ approach to human rights due diligence, which is insufficient given their global influence and the evolving tech-political landscape.
Two companies saw score declines, with X experiencing the sharpest drop in RDR’s history, which reversed transparency efforts following Elon Musk’s 2023 acquisition. As a result, Microsoft claimed the top spot, despite no score improvement since 2022.
"As an asset owner, we strongly believe that risks related to big tech's adverse impacts on users and society should be incorporated into company governance and risk management processes. We welcome this new analysis from Ranking Digital Rights, which draws important further attention to and provides additional insight on these issues. Given the size of these companies and their influence over both the economy and society, we are concerned to note that individually and collectively, Big Tech's commitments to human rights are stagnating rather than demonstrably serving the common good. These concerns are heightened in a context where the risks of social unrest and violent conflicts are rising on a localised and global scale,” said Clare Richards, of the Church of England Pensions Board.
“Tech companies have a major footprint in our everyday lives and a correspondingly significant potential for impact – both positive and negative,” said Anna Warberg of the Council on Ethics for the Swedish National Pension (AP) Funds. “Since 2023, we have coordinated the Big Tech & Human Rights investor collaboration, a group of investors that recognises the benefits of increased transparency and connectivity, but also the risks of harm to human rights and social structures. The Ranking Digital Rights Index is an important tool for us to assess how big tech companies are progressing in this area and offers key insights for our collaborative engagement efforts."
The Investor Alliance for Human Rights has led a multi-year engagement with 21 technology companies to strengthen human rights due diligence, leveraging the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) Index and other sources. In 2021, the Alliance coordinated the Investor Statement on Corporate Accountability for Digital Rights, endorsed by 176 institutional investors representing over USD 9.2 trillion in assets under management, calling on tech companies to uphold digital rights. In response to escalating human rights risks, the Alliance also developed targeted investor briefings to support engagement on critical issues such as privacy, freedom of expression, democracy, security, and online child safety.
Said Rebecca DeWinter Schmitt of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, “As a global investor coalition, we are committed to embedding human rights at the core of corporate governance and risk management. Protecting digital rights is critical to individual freedom, democratic resilience, and long-term economic and company value. We call on companies and investors to act decisively: prioritize transparency, enforce accountability, and engage consistently to drive meaningful change. A proactive, rights-respecting approach, aligned with the UN Guiding Principles, is essential to safeguarding human rights and sustaining business performance.”
"Investors recognize that tech companies operate in complex regulatory and geopolitical environments, but respecting human rights like privacy and freedom of expression should still be fundamental to their core business strategy," said Juana Lee at SHARE, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education. "Backsliding from established human rights commitments, as indicated in the new RDR Benchmark, may expose companies — and their shareholders — to material risks. But upholding human rights may help a company sustain public trust, build operational resilience and generate long-term shareholder value."
“The new RDR Index sends a clear message: Tech giants’ human rights progress is neither constant nor guaranteed,” said Leandro Ucciferri at the World Benchmarking Alliance. “While some companies are gradually improving their transparency, the industry is hampered by widespread stagnation, alarming reversals, and regional disparities. This landscape, coupled with ubiquitous data scraping to feed new algorithmic models, calls for a renewed push for accountability, both from the outside and from human rights champions within companies’ ranks. We welcome this effort by IAHR and the Swedish Council on Ethics as an excellent illustration of this.”
About the Investor Alliance for Human Rights
The Investor Alliance for Human Rights is a collective action platform for responsible investment that is grounded in respect for people’s fundamental rights. The Investor Alliance’s over 200 members include asset management firms, public pension funds, trade union funds, faith-based institutions, family funds, and endowments. Collectively, they represent nearly US$12T in assets under management and 19 countries. The Investor Alliance is an initiative of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Visit our website at: https://investorsforhumanrights.org/ and follow us on Twitter: @InvestForRights
CONTACT:
Susana McDermott
Director of Communications
Investor Alliance for Human Rights
201-417-9060 (mobile)