David Kaye is an American politician who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression between August 2014 and July 2020.

[5] His undergraduate studies took place at UC Berkeley[6] and, following law school, Kaye was employed by the State Department with a specific role working on disputes between the U.S. and Iran.

[7] In August 2014, David Kaye was appointed for his first term as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

[11] The reporting that Kaye conducted for the UN has addressed topics including the protection of freedom of expression and the use of anonymity and encryption tools;[12] the protection of fundamental freedoms of opinion for whistleblowers, special sources and journalists;[13] how the use of Artificial Intelligence can impede and interfere with information sharing, individual agency, and the development of personal opinion;[14][15] and the examination of the regulation of online content by social media and search companies.

During the trip, Kaye engaged in dialogue with national authorities, non-governmental organisations, journalists, and media as part of his examination into the situation of freedom of expression in Japan.

Kaye further reported that the organisational structures in place within the media industry of Japan were compounding the situation and undermining journalists’ abilities to counter governmental pressures.

[26] In response to the 2017 case of imprisoned Thai student activist, Jatupat Boonpatararaksa (who was awaiting trial for sharing a BBC News article on his private social media page regarding the new monarchy of King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun), Kaye underlined that the Thai Criminal Code provisions were incompatible with international human rights law and hold no place in a democratic country.

[27] October 2018 saw Kaye present to the 3rd Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York regarding the ongoing harassment of BBC Persian journalists and their families by Iran.

Kaye addressed the issue, citing reports indicating that the shutdown was curtailing the sharing of information between both electoral observers and witnesses from local centers and polling stations, and encouraged the authorities to "restore internet services as a matter of urgency and to ensure the integrity of fundamental democratic exercises [such as the vote]".

[32] In a joint report by UN experts, Kaye expressed concerns at the spike in civilian casualties and displacement in north-west Myanmar during the conflict between the Arakan Army and the state's military.

The information blackout was directly linked to escalated levels of violence in the areas that suffered the shutdown, alongside a lack of precautions being taken to protect children and other civilians – in violation of international humanitarian law.

[33] In June 2022, fifty independent United Nations human rights experts - including Kaye - published a statement on the situation of fundamental freedoms in China.

[34] In February 2019, Kaye, representing UN experts and special rapporteurs, cautioned the Ghanaian authorities that the global media's trust in government, particularly in respect of the suppression of freedom of expression, could only be rebuilt by an immediate and transparent investigation into the death of journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale, and by bringing the criminals to justice.