Democracy in the digital age

Democracy is the form of government that is best suited to realise fundamental rights and values. It is itself a set of values that enables people to live and thrive together in solidarity.

Recent years have seen profound challenges to democracy, including grave populist and autocratic shifts. In the Opinion, the EGE examines how certain configurations of digital technologies can contribute to a weakening of democratic institutions, even if they may not be its sole cause. Among these are the spread of harmful information, an unduly narrow understanding of privacy, algorithmic surveillance, manipulation and discrimination, foreign interference, and the expansion of Big Tech into public sectors. The EGE warns that democracy can quickly become an empty shell if it is not underpinned by fundamental rights and the values it seeks to protect and promote.

The EGE recommends:

• Stronger support for public participation, civic education, critical digital literacy and inclusive digital citizenship.
• Coherent, impactful regulation for digital practices that serve all. Technology design for values and democracy.
• Better support for civil society organisations & media professionals.
• Publicly funded innovation to benefit the public – and basic needs safeguarded from market rationales.
• EU diplomacy for protecting democracy and voicing civil society’s calls for people and planet.
• An understanding of privacy that does not treat it merely as a negative right but also as an individual and collective right to develop and express ourselves without being continuously watched and judged.