inDICEs position on European Declaration of Digital Principles

The inDICEs consortium recognises the relevance and importance of the European digital principles through its work with the cultural heritage sector. However we believe that a fundamental principle is missing – that of universal access to cultural heritage online. The role of digital technologies in enabling access to culture as a means of promoting inclusivity, creativity, critical engagement, education and knowledge-sharing, is essential to empowering citizens and creating fairer societies.

Ensuring the principle of universal and continuing access to culture online will be fundamental to achieving that goal.

We also believe that the proposed principle of a secure and trusted online environment does not go far enough if our digital landscape is to truly reflect the values-based society that Europe aspires to. It is not enough to aspire to an alternative to Big Tech, we must actively build it. To that end, we propose that this principle be expanded to encompass the concept and development of an open, decentralised, and trusted European digital public space. A digital public space that is built on democratic values and public digital infrastructure, and that ensures an inclusive, rights-based, people-centred alternative.

The Cultural Heritage Sector is a key enabler of the advancement of the Cultural and Creative Industries in Europe. Not only does it provide access to vast amounts of reusable cultural content, it can be seen as a R&D lab of the cultural and creative ecosystem through which it contributes both to the economic advancement and to society at large. However, researchers and policy-makers are struggling to fully understand the crucial role that the Cultural Heritage Sector can play in the digitisation process of the cultural and creative ecosystem in Europe. 

Public service & community media, educational and academic institutions,  cultural organisations and producers as well as civic initiatives have increasingly become dependent on the services of Big Tech in the absence of  viable public alternatives. The result has been  an enormous transfer of wealth from the public  sector to these private actors’ platforms, which in turn has allowed them to wield enormous  power over the media landscape and public discourse, with little or no accountability. This imbalance and lack of a viable alternative is  detrimental to the internet, to our democratic  values, and to the health of our European societies.

Over the past few years we have seen an increasing willingness to regulate in the digital space with the express aim of upholding democratic values and individual rights, accompanied by a clear recognition of the central role that digital plays across society and in Europe’s future. These efforts to  regulate and improve the digital space are very much welcome, however we can do more, indeed we must do more. It is not enough to aspire to be an alternative to Big Tech, we must  actively build it. A European Digital Public Space, built on democratic values and  public digital infrastructures, can be the cornerstone of that alternative. 

Public digital infrastructures will promote more sovereign societies and individuals through the democratisation of access, transparency and accountability, while shared standards and interoperability will allow knowledge and culture to flow, helping people to connect. Europe’s technological and civic communities already lead the way in developing the building blocks that will make this a reality. However,  that must be accompanied by ambition,  investment and a strategic approach at the  political and European level. Now we only need the political will to create digital public spaces that offer a credible vision beyond narrow  commercial interests to make this Europe’s  Digital Decade.