Watch:
The Cities Coalition for Digital Rights marks the first international agreement between cities to develop policies to protect their citizens’ internet privacy. The coalition was introduced at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress in Barcelona, and was signed by Barcelona, New York and Amsterdam. The joint initiative will promote and track progress in protecting residents’ and visitors’ digital rights.
Barcelona, Amsterdam and New York City launched the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights this week . The joint initiative will promote and track progress in protecting residents’ and visitors’ digital rights. As they state in their declaration:
The internet has become inseparable from our daily lives. Yet, every day, there are new cases of digital rights abuse, misuse and misinformation and concentration of power around the world: freedom of expression being censored; personal information, including our movements and communications, monitored, being shared and sold without consent; ‘˜black box’ algorithms being used to make unaccountable decisions; social media being used as a tool of harassment and hate speech; and democratic processes and public opinion being undermined.
The cities will develop policies, tools and resources in line with the Charter for Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, established by the UN’ s Internet Governance Forum around five core shared principles.
- Universal and equal access to the Internet and digital literacy
- Privacy, data protection and security
- Transparency, accountability and non-discrimination of data, content and algorithm
- Participatory democracy, diversity and inclusion
- Open and ethical digital service standards