This next policy brief, developed by participants in the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program “Digital Constitutionalism and the UN Global Digital Compact,” is the product of the Digital Constitutionalism Network’s successful Teaching Partnership that spans across several universities and enables students to engage both digitally and in person with pressing rights issues in the digital context. This brief is the fifth of a six-part series of policy briefs from the program held at the University of Bremen in the spring of 2024.

Authors Marie Viima, Melanie Krüger, Sarah Wolter, Elisa Di Lello, and Bruno Maria Di Maio offer the brief “Governing Emerging Technologies,” which identifies compelling issues that have developed alongside digital technologies. Disinformation, propaganda, illegal content, and the decline of digital freedom present challenges for regulation, both at the state level and by tech companies themselves. The authors examine how the Global Digital Compact addresses these challenges and consider the barriers to robust digital governance stemming from a lack of transparency, from increasing governmental restrictions upon digital technologies, and from companies’ prioritization of their business interests over human rights. The brief recommends that liability regimes and content moderation be underpinned by transparency, proportionality, due process, and accountability. The brief suggests that penalties and sanctions be incorporated in regulations to ensure compliance by states and companies in the implementation of the Global Digital Compact, and the authors emphasize the importance of independent oversight that is free from the influence of companies with vested interests in their digital products.

You can find the six policy briefs here: https://www.globaldigitalcompact.org/outcomes.html 

Photos: Matej Meza/Universität Bremen