# Business And Human Rights: Looking Ahead To The Challenges Of 2022

1 Opinion December 15, 2021 Forbes ![Michael Posner](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_046658.jpg?itok=t24nqftK) By Michael Posner >

Increasing concern about human rights around the globe underscores the risks to businesses and the need for them to address related challenges. Here are five key developments likely to demand attention in 2022:

Regulating the Spread of Harmful Content on Social Media and Addressing Threats to Privacy on the Cloud

Mounting frustration over the role that the social media industry plays in stoking polarization and spreading falsehoods about elections and public health will move the European Union closer to enactment of new regulations meant to rein in how Meta (formerly Facebook), YouTube, Twitter and other global tech companies operate. The prospects for meaningful action have improved in recent months as a result of the revelations by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked thousands of pages of internal documents, sparking intense media coverage and renewed calls for some kind of regulation. But while the U.S. Congress is considering dozens of bills meant to hold social media platforms accountable, it is far less clear that American legislators will overcome partisan differences — amplified by online vitriol — to pass actual reform.

Read the full [*Forbes* article](https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelposner/2021/12/15/business-and-human-rights-looking-ahead-to-the-challenges-of-2022/?sh=745cc6ba2a51).
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*Michael Posner is a Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.*## More from Michael Posner

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- [It's Time to Regulate Frontier AI the Way We Regulate Drugs.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/its-time-regulate-frontier-ai-way-we-regulate-drugs)
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