Ver el código de «2019 - A Human-Centric Digital Manifesto for Europe How the Digital Transformation Can Serve the Public Interest - Ursula Pachl & Pamela Valenti»

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'''Introduction'''

Over the past decade, new technologies have 
begun to alter societies dramatically. Entire 
industries — education, transportation, media, 
finance, healthcare, publishing — as well as trust in 
democratic institutions, governance and the very 
notion of open society are being turned upside down 
by the digital revolution. Much of what we took for 
granted — the nature of work, individual rights, the 
legitimacy of elites, and even what it means to be 
human — is being questioned across the world by 
digital transformations.

Despite the original promise of a web based on a 
decentralized architecture, today’s digital space 
has become intensely centralized. Over the past 
ten years, the network effect has enabled tech 
superpowers to gain astonishing power and wealth, 
often based on business models that profit from the 
commercial appropriation of users’ data.

Digital technologies have fundamentally altered 
the mechanisms through which individuals 
encounter and consume information and services, 
engage and communicate with other individuals 
and with institutions, form self-identities and 
foster communities. They have also provided new 
means for individuals to engage with the societal 
and political spheres, through shared causes and 
citizen-driven movements. A shift in the dynamics of 
societal participation can be a force for progressive 
change towards a more efficient form of organization, 
or at least a more inclusive or representative one. 
However, fast and disruptive changes also pose 
existential challenges to institutions that were 
conceived in the 20th century but seem to have lost 
touch with this new reality. 

The adverse consequences of the digital revolution 
– surveillance capitalism based on the exploitation 
of our personal data; the spread of anonymous 
online abuse; the growing power of big data 
monopolies; the decline of mainstream media; 
orchestrated disinformation and online propaganda; 
unaccountable algorithmic segregation dividing 
us into introverted opinion bubbles; an increasing 
number of surveillance measures under the 
pretext of fighting against criminal networks; the 
unaccountable extension of State powers, which is 
justified as necessary to deal with emerging threats; 
the impact of machine-learning, automated decision making and smart automation on employment, 
access to culture1 and privacy2 — all of these challenge the resilience of open and democratic societies.

The disruption of new technologies has triggered 
new challenges for institutions and regulators, who re increasingly asked to address the impact of the 
digital revolution on society, protect users’ rights 
and agency, and establish the conditions for an open 
and fair digital market to flourish and stimulate 
innovation in the public interest. To protect the 
rights of the people from technological forces that 
often seem both uncontrollable and unaccountable, 
the EU, its Member States and civil society need 
to address comprehensively a set of key questions 
affecting European democracies and societies.

For the EU to innovate and promote governance 
processes that are more inclusive and encourage 
people to participate in policymaking, it needs 
to diversify the input into the debate around the 
European digital agenda, bringing together cuttingedge knowledge, different sectoral perspectives 
and innovative thinking that goes beyond past 
institutional norms. For this reason, the Open 
Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI) and The 
European Consumer Organization (BEUC) joined 
forces to convene a diverse group of civil society 
representatives to discuss how Europe can shape 
the next decade of digital transformation in the 
public interest. During a first meeting with senior 
EU officials in November 2018, the group called on 
the European Commission to promote a humancentric approach to the digital transformation in 
the preparation of the post-2019 EU agenda.

The Sibiu Declaration of May 9 2019 was an 
important first step in this direction, as EU Member 
States jointly stressed the need to uphold the 
principle of fairness in the digital transformation, 
and committed to help the most vulnerable in Europe 
and put people before politics.3
In June, the Council conclusions on the future of a highly digitised 
EU went even further by emphasizing the crucial 
role of a human-centric approach that respects the 
Charter of Fundamental Rights and ensures respect 
for privacy, data protection rights and intellectual 
property rights as well as rules of product safety and 
liability.4

Europe is now faced with the dramatic challenge, 
responsibility and opportunity of pioneering a better 
digital society and bringing human agency back to the 
centre of innovation, growth and social cohesion. To 
do so, the next European Commission will need to:

a) Focus on the societal impact of digital 
technology, looking beyond the single market 
and individual privacy to develop a European 
model of digital transformation predicated on 
human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, 
rule of law, human rights, solidarity, justice, 
inclusion and non-discrimination;

b) Strongly commit to rights-based policies and 
regulation, particularly at a time when tech 
giants increasingly push forward narratives and 
commitments on ethics in what seems like an 
attempt to dodge issues of public accountability 
and societal interest (i.e. ‘ethics washing’). 
Principles informing EU policymaking in 
the digital sphere should build on the EU 
Fundamental Rights framework, and expand 
it to ensure that existing offline rights are 
protected online;

c) Ensure that transparency, accountability 
and participation underpin the development 
of human-centric digital policies in Europe. The 
genuine, meaningful involvement of civil society 
in the development of the next digital agenda 
for Europe will be critical to designing and 
implementing policies and regulation that serve 
the public interest and foster open societies.

This paper expands on these three overarching 
recommendations by identifying eight key areas 
of focus for the next Commission. Based on 
contributions from a diverse group of civil society 
representatives, it addresses specific concerns and 
suggests possible ways of addressing them. 

Pamela Valenti, 

Open Society European Policy Institute

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1 e.g., the introduction of upload filters in copyright and terrorist content regulation.

2 e.g., e-evidence and data retention

3 European Council, Sibiu Declaration on the future of Europe, May 9 2019.

4 Council of the European Union, Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council Conclusions on the ‘Future of a highly digitised 
Europe beyond 2020: Boosting digital and economic competitiveness across the Union and digital cohesion’, June 7 2019.

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'''URL:''' https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/a-human-centric-digital-manifesto-for-europe

'''Wayback Machine:''' http://web.archive.org/web/20220120064540/https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/a-human-centric-digital-manifesto-for-europe

[[Categoría:Manifiestos]]
[[Categoría:Inglés]]
[[Categoría:Bélgica]]
[[Categoría:2019]]
[[Categoría:Ursula Pachl]]
[[Categoría:Pamela Valenti]]