Protecting Human Rights Online must be the Guiding Principle at the UN for the Future of the Internet
Written by the Wikimedia Foundation’s: , Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead, , Lead Public Policy Analyst, and , Senior Editorial Project Manager
“A world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” This is a vision for the future of the internet on which the Wikimedia Foundation, over 150 Wikimedia affiliates, and close to 270,000 volunteers worldwide work day after day. To ensure this future becomes a reality, the Wikimedia Foundation supports an internet that respects and protects community-led platforms and the online communities responsible for making them flourish in the public interest. For the same reason, we also strive to represent the Wikimedia volunteer communities’ interests in large multistakeholder conversations about how the internet and digital technologies will be governed in the future.
Often, discussions and decisions which concern how to govern on a global scale take place at the United Nations (UN), and this year, global digital governance has been a crucial theme. We have provided our recommendations, input, and feedback to UN processes on topics ranging from copyright to human rights to Artificial Intelligence (AI), and we have consistently pushed for positive changes that would empower more public interest platforms like Wikipedia to thrive online. We have also joined forces with Wikimedia affiliated organizations and civil society allies from around the world to influence the Global Digital Compact, a guiding document for the future of digital governance that UN Member States are expected to approve on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Our vision for the Global Digital Compact
We envision an internet that protects and promotes community-led platforms, and which recognizes the value of digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructures (DPIs) — freely and openly accessible technological works and infrastructure intended to contribute to sustainable development. To ensure this vision becomes the future, we called on governments to draft a Compact grounded in human rights principles, which protects and supports communities that build and operate public interest technologies, and which is implemented through multistakeholder processes.
A key issue we have stressed is the importance of digital public goods: open source technologies and works, including reliable information and data, which exist for the public interest. Our open letter calls for the Compact to promote and protect digital public goods by supporting a robust digital commons — freely and openly available information, media, journalism and more — from which everyone, everywhere can benefit. In addition, a letter we signed along with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and other allied organizations calls for stronger representation of open science in the closely-related Pact for the Future, as well as for governing intellectual property in a manner that favors research, innovation, and the dissemination of knowledge.
The negotiations of the Compact have been extremely challenging, with UN Member States coming head to head on critical issues several times. These challenges reflect an important reality: The world is facing a choice about the future of the internet. Some imagine an online space that is open, inclusive, free, and human rights-respecting; others have a vision that gives priority to state interests and that risks fragmenting the online space. We are at a critical juncture, and we need more civil society engagement to ensure that the future of the internet is one in which everyone can thrive.
Shaping the future of digital governance today
Ultimately, the final draft of the Compact, if passed, will contain broad, high level commitments whose true meaning will be defined and shaped during the process of implementation. As such, the text of the Compact offers a starting point from which we can further engage with the UN and its Member States on matters related to internet governance. The commitments made in the text will only result in genuine sustainable development and human flourishing across the globe through genuine cooperation, collaboration, and listening across a wide variety of stakeholders, especially civil society. We look forward to helping to shape the implementation of the Compact as much as we have helped to shape some of its words.
For the first time this year, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) is accompanied by the Summit of the Future and Action Days, which are bringing together a multitude of stakeholders to share their perspectives about how the UN can better address the needs of the global community in the future.
If the Compact passes the vote of the UNGA at the Summit of the Future, the implementation phase will be critical. We are committed to work with the United Nations, its Member States, and allied organizations to design a more inclusive, accessible, human rights-respecting, and open digital future.
An event to explore how digital public goods and infrastructure can transform our world for the better
To advance the vision that we share with many others, during the Action Days we will be co-hosting a side event called “The Power of the Commons: Digital Public Goods for a More Secure, Inclusive, and Resilient World.” The event will explore the transformative potential of digital public goods and digital public infrastructure in fostering sustainable development worldwide. Speakers from the United Nations, UN Member States, academia, Wikimedia affiliates, and the Foundation will discuss the governance challenges facing online communities, various success stories, and the kind of support needed for digital public goods and infrastructure to work effectively.
Along with our free and open knowledge allies, we will share our informed perspectives about these issues, particularly at the intersection of intellectual property and open knowledge. Wikipedia and other public interest projects that provide access to knowledge and reliable information are clear examples of a digital public goods built on a robust digital commons. Because everything on Wikipedia is released under a free and open license, the world’s largest online encyclopedia could not exist as it does today without a thriving public domain and an online ecosystem featuring free and openly licensed content.
Cooperating further to implement a shared digital future
Reaching agreement on the Global Digital Compact is only the start of a new chapter of negotiation and cooperation between the UN Member States and non-governmental stakeholders worldwide on the future of internet governance.
During the “The Power of the Commons” side event and in the future, we hope that the UN can see the value of engaging with unique public interest organizations like the Wikimedia Foundation, which represent equally unique platforms like Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. As a nonprofit, volunteer-led platform that includes the largest repository of freely and openly accessible encyclopedic content and educational images and other media online, the Foundation is uniquely positioned to support the development and coordination of public policy development and multistakeholder internet governance processes that strengthen a global digital commons enabling communities across the world to access and contribute to a digital future in which everyone can thrive.
Join us online and watch the livestream of the “The Power of the Commons: Digital Public Goods for a More Secure, Inclusive, and Resilient World” side event this 21 September, 2024, from 11:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m EDT (8:15 a.m.–9:30 a.m. PDT).
