In 2023, Columbia World Projects and the Centre for Digital Governance at the Hertie School launched a collaborative initiative title Digital Governance for Democratic Renewal. This network brings together experts from various fields, including researchers, regulators, policymakers, journalists, technologists, and civil society advocates from both the U.S. and Europe. Their goal is to find solutions to the challenges that large digital platforms pose to democracy and public debate. Recordings of the associated speaker series can be found here.
What we've done
Despite sharing many goals with respect to digital regulation, the US and EU operate under distinctly different conditions, from their orientation to free speech, civil society, degrees and kinds of regulatory policies, and more. With a view to these differences, the network’s first series of meetings–from September 2023 to May 2024– brought together over 80 experts from to explore how to support the implementation of the Digital Services Act and Digital Market Act, two groundbreaking European regulations, with the expectation that this will shape how platforms operate in and influence US and EU markets and societies. In short, they considered how recent EU regulatory innovations might be adapted in the US context, and, in turn, how related efforts in the US might contribute to positive outcomes in the EU.
Meeting topics ranged from data access and use, including platform-to-researcher frameworks for diagnosing and treating online harms; alternative business models and technical interventions including “middleware” and data portability mandates to counter Big Tech’s market concentration; and emerging content moderation practices, dilemmas, and solutions that respect user privacy and expression.
What comes next
Building on insights from these meetings, the next phase of Digital Governance for Democratic Renewal aims to construct a common language for understanding broad dilemmas facing digital regulators and researchers and pinpoint solutions that move toward democratic outcomes on both sides of the Atlantic. Through working group gatherings and conferences, the network will concentrate on how to build capacity by organizing, securing, and sustaining funding for academics, journalists, and civil society organizations engaging in platform research and oversight. It will also launch a speaker series on designing and governing platforms that stabilize and support democracy.
Beginning with a public panel on “Reshaping Social Media for the Public Good” at Columbia on November 25th, we’ll host in-person and virtual discussions to uncover the most transformative proposals for democratizing and safeguarding today’s digital environment, offering a broad range of perspectives on striking a balance between user freedoms and responsible stewardship, ensuring the internet remains a space for healthy and constructive dialogue.
Additional events and publications will be announced in the coming weeks.
Next Steps
The work will include 4-6 meetings over an eight-month period, starting in November 2024. At least one of those meetings will be in person. The majority of discussions will be virtual. The goal of the meetings will be to develop recommendations by the summer of 2025 on how public and private institutions can build and implement flexible funding mechanisms to support ongoing accountability and transparency oversight of online platforms in like-minded democratic countries. The emphasis will be on identifying gaps for ongoing accountability work, amplifying promising practices where they exist, and providing solutions that both meet regulatory and independent researchers’ needs.
Available recordings can be found here.
