As the Government pursues sweeping new powers over the
online world, including the proposed Under-16 Social Media
Bill and broader internet regulation, PILLAR NZ has today
unveiled a draft New
Zealand Digital Bill of Rights.
The
proposed legislation establishes a simple constitutional
principle: the rights New Zealanders enjoy offline
must remain protected online.
PILLAR says the
Bill has been developed in response to an unmistakable trend
in New Zealand and overseas, where governments are
increasingly seeking greater control over digital life
through age verification, online regulators, digital
identity systems, surveillance technologies, algorithmic
decision-making and restrictions on lawful online
expression.
Executive Director Nathan
Seiuli said New Zealand is approaching a defining
moment for civil liberties.
“We’re witnessing a
fundamental shift in the relationship between citizens and
the State. Every new problem online is being met with the
same solution: more regulation, more surveillance, more
bureaucracy and more government control.”
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“The
Under-16 Social Media Bill isn’t the end of the
conversation. It’s the beginning of a much broader push for
greater state control over how New Zealanders access,
communicate and participate online.”
The Digital Bill
of Rights would require governments to demonstrate that any
limitation on digital rights is lawful, necessary and
proportionate. It would strengthen protections against
unjustified digital surveillance, protect the right to use
encryption and privacy-enhancing technologies, safeguard due
process when AI and automated systems are used, preserve
alternatives to compulsory digital identity systems, and
reinforce freedom of expression in digital
environments.
Seiuli said technology itself is not the
threat. “We embrace innovation. We embrace AI. We embrace
technology that improves people’s lives. What we reject is
the steady expansion of government power every time a new
technology emerges.”
“History shows that governments
rarely surrender powers once they’ve acquired them. If we
don’t establish constitutional guardrails now, we’ll spend
the next generation trying to claw back freedoms that should
never have been lost.”
PILLAR says New Zealand has an
opportunity to avoid repeating mistakes made overseas, where
online safety and misinformation laws have increasingly been
accompanied by censorship, digital identity requirements,
expanded surveillance and growing government influence over
online platforms.
“This is about drawing a line in the
sand. Your rights don’t disappear because they’re exercised
through a smartphone instead of a town square. Privacy is
still privacy. Free speech is still free speech. Due process
is still due process.”
“The Digital Bill of Rights
makes it clear that technology must serve free people. Free
people should never be expected to serve technology or the
State.”
Rather than creating another regulator or
imposing new compliance burdens on businesses, the Bill
provides a constitutional framework governing how public
authorities exercise power in digital environments and how
future digital legislation should be assessed against
fundamental rights.
PILLAR will now begin engaging
with Members of Parliament, legal experts and civil society
organisations with the goal of introducing the proposal to
Parliament.
Seiuli said the choice
facing New Zealand is bigger than social media.
“This
isn’t a debate about one app or one Bill. It’s about whether
New Zealand remains a country where citizens control
technology, or one where technology becomes another tool for
government control.”
“If Parliament is going to build
New Zealand’s digital future, then it must build it on
freedom, not
fear.”
