Wikimedians’ Vision for the Global Digital Compact: Community-Based, Open, and Inclusive
Governments are negotiating a Global Digital Compact, setting the direction for governance of our shared digital future. The Wikimedia Foundation and 12 Wikimedia affiliates have seized this opportunity to publish an open letter calling on UN Member States to include three key commitments within the Compact.
Written by the Wikimedia Foundation’s: Costanza Sciubba Caniglia, Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that hosts Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, along with 12 Wikimedia affiliates, independent organizations that support Wikimedia volunteers, published an open letter that calls on United Nations (UN) Member States to include three key commitments in the Global Digital Compact: a process led by UN Member States that aims to establish principles and commitments that can help harness the immense potential benefits of digital technologies. Our open letter seeks to ensure that online public interest projects such as Wikipedia, and the people who create them, continue to thrive in our shared digital future.
Governments are grappling with divergent visions for the future of digital spaces and technology. What role should nongovernmental actors play in shaping internet governance and regulation? What are the basic legal and regulatory conditions that will enable people all across the world to thrive? How can the international community protect and support people’s right to build and deploy technologies that advance sustainable development and empower people to exercise their fundamental rights? How do we build a digital future in which the next generation — everywhere, not only in rich countries — has equitable access to the digital technologies and resources providing them a fair chance of realizing their hopes and dreams?
What is the Global Digital Compact?
In September 2021, UN Secretary General António Guterres shared his “vision for the future of global cooperation,” calling for the creation of a Global Digital Compact: a blueprint for digital policy all over the world.
The Compact aims to “outline shared principles for an open, free, and secure digital future for all.” Set to be agreed at the Summit of the Future in September 2024, this international framework is being developed through a consultation process involving governments, the UN system, the private sector, civil society, grassroots organizations, academia, technical communities, and individuals. At the Summit of the Future, the Compact will be voted on by UN Member States to help structure the future of digital cooperation and regulation for many countries around the world.
UN Member States, in consultation with a wide range of nongovernmental actors, are tackling digital and online aspects of issues such as human rights, sustainable development, bridging the digital divide, ensuring equitable data governance, artificial intelligence, and more. Finding a point of common understanding is both necessary and urgent. Missing that, we risk making it even more difficult than it already is for people to freely and openly share independently sourced knowledge within and across borders. If that happens, Wikipedia’s very existence will be at risk.
For this reason, over the past two years, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates have provided input into a number of UN and UN Member State consultations, including a comprehensive written submission in April 2023 in order to help shape the Compact. The common principles agreed upon by governments in the Compact must enable online public interest projects, such as Wikipedia, not only to exist, but also to thrive.
The shared digital future we seek
The Global Digital Compact Zero Draft, published on 1 April, 2024, recognizes how important it is for the international community to ensure that digital technologies benefit everyone:
Digital technologies are dramatically transforming our world. They offer immense potential benefits for the wellbeing and advancement of people, societies, and for our planet.
We could not agree more and are offering our perspective, drawing from two decades of experience in building and maintaining one of the most visited websites in the world: a community-based, free and open, and inclusive platform built in the public interest. This experience shapes our advice to design the Compact in a way that supports not only existing online communities, but also others that will be formed with shared purpose within and across borders. Wikipedia is an example of how humanity can use the internet to improve people’s lives. We believe it offers a model for how online projects can serve the public interest in a manner that is responsible, ethical, and rights-respecting.
The signatories of this open letter call on UN Member States to embrace a positive vision for the internet’s future in which diverse communities everywhere are empowered and supported to build and operate free and open knowledge projects.
The three key commitments that we want to have included in the final version of the Global Digital Compact are fundamental to realizing a version of the internet which is open, global, interoperable, inclusive, and grounded in human rights.
1. Protect and empower communities to govern online public interest projects.
Free knowledge projects such as Wikipedia should not be rare. UN Member States should — through regulation, public policy, funding, and other resources — support a world where diverse online communities can build and govern their own public interest projects, designing them to be equitable and contributing to a healthier online information ecosystem.
2. Promote and protect digital public goods by supporting a robust digital commons from which everyone, everywhere can benefit.
Digital public goods such as Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects aim to make multilingual and intercultural information freely accessible to everyone. A thriving public domain that enables the sharing of free and openly licensed content for everyone to use and reuse is key to advancing many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
3. Build and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to support and empower, not replace, people who create content and make decisions in the public interest.
AI and machine learning tools should support, and not replace, the work of humans. They should be designed and deployed in a manner consistent with international human rights standards, ensuring clear and consistent attribution. Such tools should also ensure participation and control by affected communities through transparent, accountable, and open processes.
UN Member States are expected to complete negotiations on the final draft of the Compact by the end of June 2024.
Once approved in September 2024 at the Summit for the Future, the Global Digital Compact will be the first document reflecting an agreement among UN Member States on a shared overarching approach to governing digital technologies. It will become a blueprint of how governments shape their digital policies and regulations, and it has the potential to reshape the internet as we know it.
Now is the time to ensure that governments embrace our vision for the future of the internet — which will in turn help policymakers ensure that laws and regulations do not inadvertently harm Wikipedia along with other community-governed, free knowledge platforms that operate in the public interest, delivering benefits to a diverse range of communities and societies.
The full potential of the internet — enabling collaboration, broadening access to knowledge, and advancing social progress — depends on a united effort from governments, policymakers, and civil society to protect public interest spaces online.
Support us and sign for a better digital future!
We believe that the three commitments we are proposing are essential to realize this vision of a better internet, where knowledge is human. We ask all those who agree with our belief to sign our letter in support, and request that these principles be included within the Global Digital Compact.