Building a sustainable information ecosystem for human rights and democracy

Rebecca MacKinnon Events of the past two years - featuring online
extremism, misinformation campaigns, the election of populists and
demagogues - have unfortunately proven that we have much work to do
if we want to ensure that the global information ecosystem can
support democracy and not destroy it. Just as our physical
economy's dependence on fossil fuels threatens the planet's
survival, it is now becoming clear that our global
information ecosystem's heavy dependence on advertising - and
especially targeted advertising technology - poses a threat to
the future of democracy. Everybody responsible for building,
shaping, and governing global flows of information must commit to
build alternative means of supporting a healthy and sustainable
public sphere so that future generations can stand a chance of
enjoying human rights and and accountable governance. In her 2012
book Consent of the Networked Rebecca MacKinnon argued that
the internet would not automatically make the world more free and
democratic. We must actively work to ensure that the products and
services and communities that we use to communicate, organize, and
share information are designed, managed, and governed in a way that
actually enables human rights and strengthens democracy.  At
re:publica 18 MacKinnon will challenge everybody who plays a role
in shaping our information ecosystem - internet platforms, media
companies, online communities, regulators, and individual users and
citizens - to take responsibility for how we have contributed to or
enabled the state of the world today. We need to take a
hard and critical look not only at how we may be affecting other
people’s online rights, but how we are helping or hurting the
prospects for democracy’s survival.