Tech Sovereignty
DiEM25 believes that Europe can become a beacon of hope if it unites political, social and technological progress — putting the flourishing of all human beings at the centre of technological change. This could have a transformative impact on a global scale.
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Technological Sovereignty
Technology monopolies have attained tremendous powers to shape what we see, who we hear from, or how we think, without any democratic accountability for that power. Technology has become a central form of power in society. This power must ultimately belong to the sovereign citizens of a technologized society.
Our Tech Pillar promotes an ambitious plan to achieve Technological Sovereignty: the right and capacity of citizens and democratic institutions to make self-determined choices regarding technologies and their innovation.
Digital Commonwealth
The establishment of a Digital Commonwealth in Europe will counter the power of platform monopolies by:
- Strengthening regulations on Data Protection (GDPR) and ePrivacy to limit involuntary data extraction;
- Enforcing mandatory cross-platform-interoperability and Portability of Data;
- Ensuring stronger EU antitrust laws and better enforcement; and
- Introducing the concept of Data Unions for collective representation.
Its infrastructure will be created by:
- Opening up and democratising algorithmic Automated Decision Making (often wrongly referred to as “artificial intelligence (AI)”) processes;
- Decommodifying data through the establishment of a public data commons;
- Creating a framework of digital rights for citizens; and
- Supporting alternative business models to democratise economic structures, such as platform cooperatives.
Democratising Innovation
Decisions about technology should not be irreversibly delegated to technocrats, corporations and tech monopolies — Europe can and must do better.
The policies proposed by DiEM25 call for new institutions and a participatory governance of technology. They include the development of technological citizenship in the 21st century, based on principles such as the commons, the capacity of self-organisation and the development of counter-power held by citizens and democratic institutions.
The Tech Pillar’s democratisation of innovation ensures that knowledge is shared in such a way as to benefit as many as possible. It will involve a reversal of the trend of socialising costs while privatising benefits of innovation, and the abolishment of monopolistic approaches to innovation.