The flagship European Commission event dedicated to Internet, NGI Forum 2021, will take place on May 18-19
Mihai Cristea 07/05/2021 | 15:02
Digital technologies and access to a safe and secure Internet have proved essential during the COVID-19 crisis, but the pandemic has also exacerbated existing technological, societal, and economic gaps. Human centricity is not an option for Europe as we enter the Digital Decade, it is a core component, and NGI is an essential initiative to bring the human dimension at the core of the Internet.
On 9 March 2021, the Commission presented a vision and avenues for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030. The Commission proposes a
Inside the race to carve up the free web As public perception of Big Tech shifts, politicians are developing competing models for the future of the internet. Chris McGrath/Getty Images In the early days of social media, digital platforms were touted as a tool for democracy. The post-election protests in Iran in 2009 were dubbed the “Twitter revolution”, while Facebook proved indispensable in 2011 during the Arab Spring. In recent years, however, public perception has shifted. “Our collective understanding of these tools has swung on this pendulum from thinking that social media was going to bring about democratisation, to all of a sudden thinking that social media is destroying our democracy,” says Adrian Shahbaz, director for technology and democracy at US non-profit Freedom House. “As governments have understood how powerful these tools can be, we have seen a majority of governments pass laws to regulate them in a way that curtails free expression