Defending digital rights and privacy in The Netherlands: The role of Bits of Freedom

The year was 1999. The dotcom bubble was soon to burst and the imminent “Y2K” crisis was causing panic worldwide. With the approaching turn of the new millennium, the organization Bits of Freedom was also born, an independent digital rights foundation focused on fighting against the infringement of privacy and civil rights that had emerged with the new digital age. Now 25 years later the organization has expanded and tackled the continuous breaches of privacy and violation of rights that have developed alongside the modern digital world. Nowadays younger generations are growing up in an era in which the use of the online web has become the default for most activities: social, political, and so on. This has created a necessity of paramount importance for an organization like Bits of Freedom to exist, in order to counterbalance the power of Big Tech, and protect the democratic rule of law.

Ilja Schurink, a campaigner working with Bits of Freedom (BOF) explains this change in attitude: “The topics of privacy and digitalization become more important for people and less abstract over the years. People are more aware of the concept, aware of what is happening. There is a lot to be gained, too, when we talk about awareness and engagement on these topics with the general public, and also in politics. It’s given more importance, and the digitization of our society is going very fast, and that’s why we are growing as an organization.”

Although the Netherlands stands nowhere near the top of the ranking for countries with the worst data privacy laws and online freedom - where countries such as China and North Korea are leaders - an organization like BOF is still necessary. According to Ilja there are certain groups that are presently denied digital privacy: “We have to do a lot of work, because even in the Netherlands, where people might be thinking that everything’s going well, everyone is equal, and where the protection of human rights are guaranteed at all times, human rights are violated on a daily basis. There are still a lot of voices that are shut down, and a lot of people that unlawfully have to bear the brunt of (digital) violations. If you’ve never had a problem with it, I can imagine that you think, well, this is not about you, but I feel like in the Netherlands we have to stand up for everyone and everyone’s rights. Every individual needs to be handled equally. So for me it’s really important to work on this. I hope the more projects we do, the more people will get aware of the importance of it. That’s why we speak up, work hard, and share our stories.” 

Proof of this was demonstrated in the recent Dutch controversy exposed on the Bits of Freedom website. DUO, a Dutch organization that administers student grants, was revealed to practice racial bias within their anti-fraud investigations, resulting in an apology from the Minister of Education. Ilja adds: “We work together with a lot of other human rights organizations,  for example, organizations within the anti-discrimination movement. It still happens that certain groups or voices are being silenced by Facebook, or Instagram., The voices of organizations or individuals are thus removed from public debate, while these voices are desperately needed to safeguard the interests and rights of society as a whole. There are a lot of examples where discrimination is at large.” 

Bits of Freedom have not been afraid to call out public persons, companies, governments and institutions in the past, the Minister of Education being one more recent example. They are notorious for being the hosts of the Netherlands Big Brother Awards, an award show dedicated to exposing “those who have excelled in the violation of our privacy”. More often than not large corporations and public figures are nominated for awards. The international award show named after the character Big Brother from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, has been held almost annually in Amsterdam by BOF since the early 2000’s. Last year the public award went to outgoing Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, for letting people who were wrongly put on a terror list to be exposed. The other awards went to Meta, X and Telegram. These platforms were nominated for taking away a voice from innocent people in war zones. They were also lacking in moderation of shared messages: calls for violence or even genocide remained long available and virtually unpunished.

Despite the ironic nature of the award show, the goal is not set in controversy but rather from a place of desire for change, as Ilja clarifies: “No, it’s not, about shaming, it’s about putting someone on stage who didn’t do a good job, and to tell them how to do better and hope they will. It also allows the public to see that it’s possible to hold power accountable and question the status quo. It’s usually larger organizations and companies or public figures that are presented. In the past people have shown up to accept their award, which I think is very funny, and a good thing.”

The award show is open to the public, another attempt to spread the discourse of change in online privacy  and freedom of communication. Alongside its humorous nature, the awards also serve as a yearly reminder of what the organization is fighting against, and one its main adversaries: Big Tech. “This is a Big Tech problem.” declares Ilja, when speaking of restrictions against people or organizations in the country. “We regularly receive signals and requests for help from civil society organizations that show that their freedom of communication within the online public discourse is insufficiently guaranteed.” In order to fight against this large adversary, Bits of Freedom have lobbied for new laws, such as the Digital Services Act and a digital markets act: “These laws are really about putting the power back in people’s hands instead of the hands of Big Tech, and we still have to do a lot of work on it”.