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Short abstract:

This research examines the digital disparities among languages and their social, cultural, and legal implications. It further considers whether international law can support a right to participate in digital domains using one’s first language.

Long abstract:

The digital age offers unprecedented opportunities to access, create, and share information. However, many benefits are primarily available in English and a few other languages, many of which are European. When attempting to use their first language, speakers of less advantageous languages often face barriers such as limited broadband access, unsuitable equipment such as keyboards, apps that do not support their languages, and scarcity of relevant content. Despite advancements in AI, specifically in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs), which have broadened language coverage, these technologies frequently fail to match the performance available to speakers of digitally dominant languages. Such restricted access to digitalization in one’s first language may bear profound ramifications in education, health, law, employment, culture, and religion. It may also undermine cultural diversity, the plurality of voices, and a meaningful market of ideas. Moreover, it risks diminishing vulnerable and low-resource languages and may even lead to their extinction.

My research examines the digital disparities among languages and their social, cultural, and legal implications. It further explores three categories of human rights as potential frameworks for this right: (1) always-applicable human rights, such as linguistic rights and freedom of expression; (2) context-dependent rights, like the right to health or education; (3) digital-age human rights, including the right to access the internet. Drawing on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and focusing on the third category, the study highlights the responsibilities of states and platforms in upholding such rights.