Summit of the Future High-Level Interactive Dialogue: Towards a Common Digital Future
Summit of the Future High-Level Interactive Dialogue
“Towards a Common Digital Future”
23 September 2024
Statement by the International Institute for
Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
President Karis, President Muizzu, thank you for chairing this important dialogue.
Excellencies,
Never before has so much information been available to so many people. This fact is reshaping politics globally. Digital technologies are creating new opportunities for people to learn about and participate in politics.
Yet the full flourishing of this democratic potential is only possible when the internet itself is democratic: open, interoperable, inclusive, and accessible by all. This must be our collective mission, both through and beyond the Global Digital Compact.
Let me share three basic ideas to advance this objective.
First, we must protect the integrity of the information environment, especially around politics. Everyone agrees that people should be able to access clean water. Well, we also need to protect their access to clean sources of political information. But right now, the drinking water and the sewage are flowing from the same taps.
Ending this pollution of the information environment is a task for all sectors of society. As two examples, companies must increase transparency around ranking algorithms, and governments must refrain from internet shutdowns.
Second, we must ensure that the Digital Public Infrastructure now being built all over the world incorporates democratic rights, values, and principles by default. Here I will underscore the importance of equality and non-discrimination of women and minorities, as well as transparency. Our goal should be universal access. Among other things, this means closing the digital gender gap.
Third, we must protect the current system of governance for digital technologies, especially the multistakeholder model and core institutions like the Internet Governance Forum. We should also make full use of existing Human Rights Mechanisms, while adding norms and agreements to protect human rights online and to protect the internet itself from further fragmentation. A similarly principled and inclusive global framework is needed for artificial intelligence.
Digital technologies hold great power to foster a global democratic commons. We must seize the opportunity of the Global Digital Compact and the Summit of the Future to make the internet a common good for all people of the world, leaving no one behind.
Thank you.
