Freedom House is a non-governmental organisation that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and research operations in New York City. In addition, it maintains approximately a dozen field offices throughout the world – depending on the needs of the programmes it administers; such offices may be located in the regions of Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
Freedom House works to defend human rights and promote democratic change, with a focus on political rights and civil liberties. Its mission is to act as a catalyst for freedom through a combination of analysis, advocacy, and action.
In relation to artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, Freedom House looks into how technologies such as facial recognition and biometrics could affect basic human rights, lead to state surveillance, and undermine democracy.
Freedom House publishes the yearly Freedom on the Net Report (2019, 2018, 2017) evaluating the impacts of technologies on democracy and human rights. In the 2019 Freedom of the Net Report, Freedom House took a closer look at the role of AI (monitoring systems, natural-language processing, sentiment analysis, and deep neural networks) in social mass surveillance. The Freedom on the Net Report features a ranked, country-by-country assessment of online freedom, a global overview of the latest developments, as well as in-depth country reports. The findings and the analysis in the reports are used for policy recommendations and advocacy campaigns.
- Advocates for human rights and democractic principles, including with respect to the governmental use of AI technologies.