A/HRC/44/57 than half that in the global North.34 In Africa, 22 per cent of individuals use the Internet, compared with 80 per cent in Europe.35 In the so-called least developed countries, only one in five persons is online, in contrast to four out of five in so-called developed countries.36 Even as technology has been beneficial for national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, these benefits have not been evenly distributed. The least developed countries are not only the most vulnerable to the human and economic consequences of COVID-19, but also the least digitally ready to access public health information online and to make use of digital schooling, working and shopping platforms. 37 21. Among countries, the United States and China dominate the global digital economy. These two countries account for 90 per cent of the market capitalization value of the world’s 70 largest digital platforms, which include social media and content platforms, ecommerce platforms, Internet search services, mobile ecosystems and industrial cloudbased platforms.38 Current predictions suggest that emerging digital technologies are poised to further widen the digital divide between countries that have and those that lack the capabilities to take advantage of such technologies. 22. Digital divides also exist within countries. For example, notwithstanding the dominance of the United States within the global digital economy, racial and ethnic minorities in that country have disparate access to the benefits of emerging digital technologies. In many cases, they are subject to the most significant human rights violations associated with emerging digital technologies, as illustrated in part III below. According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, black and Hispanic adults remain less likely to own a computer or have high speed Internet at home in the United States.39 While 82 per cent of whites report owning a desktop or laptop computer, only 58 per cent of blacks and 57 per cent of Hispanics do.40 Substantial racial and ethnic differences in broadband adoption also exist, with whites being 13 to 18 per cent more likely to report having a broadband connection at home than blacks or Hispanics.41 This digital divide along the axis of race and ethnicity is significant. As researchers have argued, however, interventions to promote digital inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities must not be pursued in ways that expose them to further rights violations, including as a result of privacy and surveillance concerns.42 In the case of China, part III below exemplifies the severe human rights consequences of its design and use of emerging digital technologies. These concerns are further amplified by the growing influence of Chinese emerging digital technologies in the global South. 23. Indigenous peoples are also subject to discriminatory exclusion from the benefits of emerging digital technologies.43 Estimates in Canada show that approximately half of the predominantly indigenous northern population lack the high speed connections available to their southern counterparts.44 Indigenous digital inclusion has also been low in Australia, especially outside cities, with only 6 per cent of residents in some remote Aboriginal communities having a computer in 2011.45 By 2015, Aboriginal people were still 69 per cent less likely than non-Aboriginal people to have any Internet connection. 46 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Trade and Development Report 2018: Power, Platforms and the Free Trade Delusion (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.18.II.D.7), p. viii. Ibid. See Digital Economy Report 2019, p. 13. See https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/dtlinf2020d1_en.pdf. Digital Economy Report 2019, p. xvi. See www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/20/smartphones-help-blacks-hispanics-bridge-somebut-not-all-digital-gaps-with-whites. Ibid. Ibid. See https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3821. See https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260781. See https://rightscon2018.sched.com/event/EHqs/addressing-the-digital-divide-in-indigenouscommunities-in-north-america. See www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/economy/internet-access-in-aboriginal-communities. Ibid. 7