Speaking Freely: Tomiwa Ilori

Interviewer: David Greene

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tomiwa Ilori is an expert researcher and a policy analyst with focus on digital technologies and human rights. Currently, he is an advisor for the B-Tech Africa Project at UN Human Rights and  a Senior ICFP Fellow at HURIDOCS.  His postgraduate qualifications include masters and doctorate degrees from the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. All views and opinions expressed in this interview are personal. 

Greene: Why don’t you start by introducing yourself?

Tomiwa Ilori: My name is Tomiwa Ilori. I’m a legal consultant with expertise in digital rights and policy. I work with a lot of organizations on digital rights and policy including information rights, business and human rights, platform governance, surveillance studies, data protection and other aspects. 

Greene: Can you tell us more about the B-Tech project? 

The B-Tech project is a project by the UN human rights office and the idea behind it is to mainstream the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) into the tech sector. The project looks at, for example, how  social media platforms can apply human rights due diligence frameworks or processes to their products and services more effectively. We also work on topical issues such as Generative AI and its impacts on human rights. For example, how do the UNGPs apply to Generative AI? What guidance can the UNGPs provide for the regulation of Generative AI and what can actors and policymakers look for when regulating Generative AI and other new and emerging technologies? 

Greene: Great. This series is about freedom of expression. So my first question for you is what does freedom of expression mean to you personally? 

I think freedom of expression is like oxygen, more or less like the air we breathe. There is nothing about being human that doesn’t involve expression, just like drawing breath. Even beyond just being a right, it’s an intrinsic part of being human. It’s embedded in us from the start. You have this natural urge to want to express yourself right from being an infant. So beyond being a human right, it is something you can almost not do without in every facet of life. Just to put it as simply as possible, that’s what it means to me. 

Greene: Is there a single experience or several experiences that shaped your views about freedom of expression? 

Yes. For context, I’m Nigerian and I also grew up in the Southwestern part of the country where most of the Yorùbá people live. As a Yoruba person and as someone who grew up listening and speaking the Yoruba language, language has a huge influence on me, my philosophy and my ideas. I have a mother who loves to speak in proverbs and mostly in Yorùbá. Most of these proverbs which are usually profound show that free speech is the cornerstone of being human, being part of a community, and exercising your right to life and existence. Sharing expression and growing up in that kind of community shaped my worldview about my right to be. Closely attached to my right to be is my right to express myself. More importantly, it also shaped my view about how my right to be does not necessarily interrupt someone else’s right to be. So, yes, my background and how I grew up really shaped me. Then, I was fortunate that I also grew up and furthered my studies. My graduate studies including my doctorate focused on freedom of expression. So I got both the legal and traditional background grounded in free speech studies and practices in unique and diverse ways. 

Greene: Can you talk more about whether there is something about  Yorùbá language or culture that is uniquely supportive of freedom of expression? 

There’s a proverb that goes, “A kìí pa ohùn mọ agogo lẹ́nu” and what that means in a loose English translation is that you cannot shut the clapperless bell up, it is the bell’s right to speak, to make a sound. So you have no right to stop a bell from doing what it’s meant to do, it suggests that it is everyone’s right to express themselves. It suffices to say that according to that proverb, you have no right