The Global Network Initiative today released its 2015/16 Public Report on the Independent Assessments of member companies Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Yahoo. Based on a detailed evaluation of the confidential assessment reports prepared by independent assessors, GNI’s multi-stakeholder Board determined that the five companies are compliant with the GNI Principles.

A finding of compliance means that the companies are making good faith efforts to implement the GNI Principles and to improve this implementation over time. This marks the completion of the GNI’s second cycle of company assessments, which are unique in the ICT industry...

Highlighted in the report are important areas of ongoing challenge for company implementation of the GNI Principles. They include: continuing legal limits on the disclosure of national security requests; the acute strains on the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) system, which allows law enforcement to legitimately collect digital evidence across borders; and escalating government pressures on companies to remove “extremist” or “terrorist” content from their platforms in ways that may conflict with rights to privacy and free expression...