Human Rights Watch published “Algorithms of Exploitation” on May 13, 2026, a report documenting how platform companies use algorithmic systems to set pay, assign tasks, and discipline workers across nine countries, including India, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. The release coincided with a separate HRW call for the International Labor Organization to negotiate a binding treaty extending labor protections to gig workers globally.
For self-employed couriers, drivers, and platform freelancers in the United States, the global push matters because ILO standards historically filter into U.S. state law within five to ten years of ratification. The new report also increases pressure on stateside platforms already navigating the New Jersey ABC test and the federal Department of Labor’s classification rewrite.
What The Report Actually Found
HRW documented that platform algorithms across the nine studied countries determine when workers are assigned tasks, how much they are paid per task, and when their accounts are suspended. Workers reported little to no transparency into how those decisions are made, no meaningful appeal process when they are deactivated, and minimal or no occupational injury coverage when they are hurt on the job.
The report names four specific policy demands. Platforms should disclose how pay and task assignment work, governments should require accessible appeal mechanisms for automated decisions, occupational health and safety law should cover all platform workers, and workers should have the explicit right to organize and bargain collectively without retaliation.
Why This Matters For Self-Employed Workers
United States gig platforms are not directly named in the nine-country study, but the report’s policy framework maps almost perfectly onto debates already underway in California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Algorithmic transparency in particular has surfaced in pending state legislation, with proposals to require platforms to disclose how surge pricing, deactivation, and ratings work.
The ILO treaty angle is the longer-term variable. ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers, ratified in 2011, slowly reshaped wage and overtime law in U.S. states between 2015 and 2024, and a parallel platform-work convention would likely follow a similar arc, affecting California, Washington, and New York first.
What Self-Employed Couriers Should Do Next
The first practical step is to document the algorithmic decisions that affect daily earnings, including surge-pricing changes, rating drops, and unexplained deactivations. State legislatures considering transparency bills are actively soliciting first-hand worker accounts, and a documented record carries more weight than aggregate platform statistics.
The second step is reviewing personal injury and disability coverage. The HRW report names lack of occupational coverage as the single biggest financial risk facing platform workers, and self-employed couriers should compare gig accident policies from Stride, Catch, and similar providers against the New Jersey ABC test rule, taking effect October 1, 2026.
What To Watch Next
The ILO’s next governing body session in November could be the venue for adding formal treaty negotiations to the 2027 agenda. HRW and allied labor groups will spend the rest of 2026 lobbying member states, and the U.S. position will depend heavily on how the Department of Labor finalizes its proposed independent contractor rule.
The second signal is whether U.S. state legislatures cited above pull algorithmic transparency language directly from the HRW recommendations. New York’s 2026 session ends in June, and any worker-classification or platform-transparency bills that advance before adjournment will be a leading indicator of whether the global report shifts the domestic conversation.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦: Unsplash
