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"Digital rights" is an emerging, interdisciplinary area of study that has roots in the study of fundamental human rights as we interact with information and communication technologies (ICTs). The rights to access ICTs and information, privacy, and freedom of speech are critical digital rights that we will explore in this module. However, as our online presence, our digital identities, and our complex engagement with digital technologies and infrastructures expands across most aspects of our socio-economic activities, conventional notions of "digital rights" become stretched, intersecting with personal safety, consumer rights, workers’ rights, and other types of collective rights and concerns around social justice.

Drawing insights from information policy, cyberlaw, media studies, political economy, and Science and technology studies (STS), this module addresses the opportunities and risks that digital technologies pose for the protection of individual and collective rights and for social justice. It offers a critical appraisal of key concepts and perspectives in debates around rights in the digital age, with consideration of the diversity of normative values and subjects of protection, and the diversity of actors and interests involved. The module is designed to equip students with the knowledge and critical skills necessary to assess the possible challenges posed by digital technologies, the tensions between different normative values, and the trade-offs between various mechanisms to protect digital rights within specific social, economic, and regulatory contexts.

Indicative topics of discussion include privacy and surveillance by the state and by Big Tech; freedom of expression, access to information, misinformation, and the role of social media; algorithmic management, the quantified worker and workers’ rights; behavioral manipulation, and nudging; AI and bias, targeting, and discrimination; consumers’ rights and cybersecurity; vulnerable groups and online safety; social justice and digital colonialism; women’s rights in the digital age; smart cities and right to the city.