Democracy & Digital Societies

As the Trump administration puts pressure on Chinese telecom giant Huawei to block its dominance in developing future 5G networks, small European competitors are pitching themselves as more secure alternatives

While US companies might dominate the tech industry, the European Union is leading the way on digital rights. By regulating a key part of the global market, the EU has put data protection on the agenda around the world. In the United States, reeling from the realisation that the control of data affords Big Tech enormous economic and political power, politicians from both sides are now calling for reform.

The public space of the internet is a far more hazardous place for women and LGBTI people than for other groups. We must defend and expand it as a free space.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation was not only a victory for citizens concerned about their rights, but also a Green political success.

We can learn from political and societal strategies dealing with ecology how to shape our digital lives. We need clear regulation, incentives for innovation, and empowered citizens.

Tech start-ups across the country like to portray themselves as savvy social entrepreneurs – whiz kids who use simple, data-based technologies to make our cities “smart” and “open.” But in the rush to modernize, the new generation of tech enthusiasts often neglects the complexities of urban communities, the tangled histories of racial discrimination and deep-seated socioeconomic divides. 

Based in Brooklyn, the Health Maker Lab uses 3D printing technology to produce low-cost prostheses and medical instruments, with the aim of radically shifting the "relationship between the 1% and 99% of the population.” Hbs Media Fellow Giorgio Ghiglione met with one of its founders. 

In the United States the “right to repair” electronic devices is highly contested. Big manufacturers only allow for repairs carried out by authorized technicians using original spare parts, and they have US copyright law on their side. Now, The Repair Association is taking on multinationals to try to change things.

According to digital experts, political campaigning in the US is at a turning point. Could California, where Silicon Valley is driving global tech innovation, offer new tools to take democracy into the digital age? The search for answers led Hbs Media Fellow Lena Schnabl to the University of California, Berkeley.