R9 A1: Position yourself on digital rights!

Technology now permeates every aspect of our lives; the ‘digital’ angle has
become relevant to all domains - whether health¹, security², democracy³,
migration⁴, justice⁵, gender and personal identity⁶, international relations⁷,
or of course personal communications⁸. Digital rights are therefore increasingly
important, as they shape what is possible and what is necessary, the structure &
dynamics of our lives.

There is also an increasing interest from the general public into the digital -
the youth knows of the GAFAM, of the importance of personal data (GDPR), of the
way they are tracked on the internet in order to be targeted with intrusive
tailored ads, …

However, green (and other) political parties have not yet picked up digital
rights as a key priority, despite it having become a core aspect of our lives
and of many ‘green’ fights. It is not clear for the public - and the youth
particularly - what a ‘proper digital society’ is for the different parties
within their framework of values (or at least that is not made clear enough to
the general public). Yet, it is both strategic and logical for greens across
Europe to claim the (currently rather unoccupied) spot of defenders of digital
rights, as it is in the continuity of the greens’ values and the fights they
picked so far - ambitious and forward-looking.

We also aknowledge that the extension and usability of digital technologies is happening unequally across Europe, as often excludes some population groups from this right and creating a digital gap that particularly affects those less educated, rurals communities and older people. The reasons for this digital gap can be due to geographical, economic, cultural, cognitive, or generational issues. Therefore, political efforts need to be done consequently to contribute to reducing the source of inequalities and ensuring equity accross Europe.


It is particularly strategic as there are many recent and forthcoming laws that
are relevant from a digital rights perspective both at national level (e.g. in
Belgium: data retention) and at EU level (Digital Services Act, Data Act,
Artificial Intelligence Act, Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, Advance Passenger
Information Regulation, the European Health Data Space, etc.). More will come,
and hence the importance of the theme ‘digital’ is here to stay. Many rights &
interests are at stake with these laws - among others our rights to anonymity in
the public space, to freedom of speech, to freedom of information, to privacy,
to the secrecy of our personal communications, to freedom of movement, to
fairness & non-discrimination. Algorithms, on the other side, raise concerns
about key principles for individual and communal life - such as the principles
of transparency, accountability, fairness & non-discrimination, freedom of
movement & speech.

These are rights that we fought hard to gain “back in the days”, and principles
we fought to establish durably, but because they are ‘reborn’ under the prism of
digital spaces and technologies, and because data, digital tools and processing
power allow for unprecedented insights and ways to monitor and control people,
these rights have to be fought for anew. Green parties already support and
defend them, but ‘digital’ still remains a marginal topic politically - there is
little political positioning through it despite its importance.

In light of the importance of these rights and principles, and in light of their
newly-found prevalence in all areas of work traditionally (though not
exclusively) ‘Green’, this motion is calling on Green parties to pick up digital
rights as a key priority for the 2024 european elections - to think ahead
together: what is a sustainable digital society? What principles & interests
should prevail? What is our ambitious Green vision for a digital society (beyond
the more ‘traditional’ green digital angles of sustainability, right to repair &
digital divide), and how much of prominence should it have in a political
program ?

This resolution is a call from the Federation of Young European Greens to seize
the transversal topic of ‘digital’ in politics, a call to Green parties to
position themselves (more clearly) as champions of a sustainable digitised
society, and a call to claim the spotlight for an electorate who increasingly
cares about the architecture of their digital personal, communal and political
life. At a time where tech has become the biggest lobby sector in the EU by
spending (ahead of pharma, fossil fuels, finance, and chemicals), let’s think
ahead about what the key digital priorities of the green youth for the short-
and long-term represent, and their place in politics!

References:

1. [1] Digitisation of patients’ health records and its forced sharing: what
   space for choice and autonomy? Opt-in vs opt-out. [2] Covid-19:
   technosolutionism in contact-tracing apps and combined databases

2. [1] Facial recognition: the Greens/EFA’s position on the AI Act; the
   petition to ban it in Bruxelles. [2] Mass surveillance of citizens in
   ‘democratic’ countries: data retention (in all Member States - DE, BE, NL,
   IE, LU, SE, PT,...)

3. [1] Advertising is key to the free internet - targeted advertising isn’t;
   about the internet’ business model, how we are constantly tracked and
   profiled on the net, and how it harms consumers and publishers alike. [2]
   Targeted political advertising as a threat to democracies (Cambridge
   Analytica).

4. The increasingly ‘connected’ databases of the police & migration
   authorities.

5. SyRI (System Risk Indicator) - the algorithmic risk profiling method
   employed by the Dutch government (and others) to detect individual risks
   of welfare, tax and other types of fraud.

6. [1] Reproductive Privacy Requires Data Privacy- Roe v Wade. [2] The
   digital euro: will all our transactions be tracked or not? [3] Orwell’s
   Wallet: European electronic identity system leads us straight into
   surveillance capitalism. Should we be tracked all over the web, or should
   we have a right to anonymity?

7. Sovereignty and surveillance - diplomatic transatlantic politics of data
   transfers with Schrems II.

8. Techno-solutionism & the privacy of communications: the CSA Regulation.