The Challenges of Absolute Freedom of Expression

The freedom to communicate thoughts, ideas and our expressions is something we all value. So much so, the United Nations recognises freedom of expression as a fundamental human right. We have aligned Oxen’s mission with this fundamental human right. Our technology gives everyone the opportunity to communicate, trade and express themselves with absolute freedom, security and privacy. 

The internet is the digital representation of the real world — and of all humanity. It stores and facilitates the voices of everyone who uses it, crossing borders and cultures. The internet doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t judge. It has no values. And that is what makes the internet so incredible and beneficial to our society.

We are committed to building products that enable secure and private communications. We can see the journalists and activists defending fundamental human values and principles using our technology. And, we believe that in order for new paradigms to emerge and progress humanity, we must enable and defend freedom of expression and secure and private communications.

Yet, at the same time, a system that enables freedom of expression and privacy can also be exploited by individuals and groups acting against the values and norms that define our humanity.

Oxen is deeply aware of this dual nature of the internet and the technologies we are building. We are familiar with the well-documented history of how secure communications technologies have damaged democracy. Organised crime , people participating in child and sexual exploitation, and terrorists have abused these technologies. But we strongly believe that the positives outweigh the negatives. That is why Oxen is investing time and energy into understanding this problem, to develop solutions that reduce the negative impacts that our technologies could enable. We are still in the early stages of figuring this out.

It’s not an easy problem to solve, but we at Oxen want to ensure freedom of expression flourishes on the internet, and empowers everyone to imagine and create a more wonderful and positive world.