by Anatoly Motkin, President, StrategEast
As a member of Working Group on Democracy and Technology of the Community of Democracies I am grateful to Ambassador (ret.) Eileen Donahoe for an extremely precise policy recommendations proposed in her article «The Digital Technology Agenda at the Summit for Democracy» and fully support the stated policy recommendations. The article recaps in detail policy recommendations – what the West should do in order to protect democratic values in the digital world. However, speaking about the digital transformation of society, we must remember the mission of the Western world to spread democratic values to new countries. It is important to remember that there are not only “pure democracies” and “pure dictatorships” in the world, but also transition countries.
We are talking about states that have emerged in the last three decades, where the social structure has not yet been established. Many of these countries are located along the conditional border between China and Russia on the one side and the Western world on the other – they are post-Soviet or post-communist countries of Eurasia: from Central Asia, through the South Caucasus to Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Dictatorships try to spread their influence over these countries using new digital technologies. China does this by introducing its technologies, in particular by deploying its 5G networks, Russia – using information interventions and disrupting the clarity of the electoral process.
The West’s answer is necessary, but it cannot be symmetrical.
When China spreads technology with its embedded values, it does it in the only way possible for a dictatorship – “top-down” – by imposing its technological solutions on weak countries by economic pressure. The Western world must act inclusively while spreading its values. Not only by offering transition countries technologies with embedded democratic values, but also by enabling the inhabitants of these countries to take part in the creation of such technologies themselves.
The IT industry is increasing its importance in the economy of transition countries, with about 1 million programmers working in the region mentioned above. But it is even more important that, unlike other sectors of the economy, the local IT industry is fully integrated into the global one, and moreover is a part of the production chain of Western IT giants. Thanks to this, the local IT industry has also become a cultural phenomenon, when, working with a Western customer or partner, a local IT engineer adopts Western values. And this is the very chance that should be used to spread the values of democracy in the new digital world. Today it is a million of programmers, but in ten years it could very well be ten million. Uzbekistan alone in its state program speaks of the need to train a million programmers.
Thereby we also solve another problem by using an inclusive approach: Western social networks operating in transition countries have become the “main world censor” in the eyes of local residents. The privacy, security, and free expression policies of these social networks are developed at headquarters in the United States or in the Western European divisions, and then applied in all markets where the company operates. As a result, the actions of social networks are seen as analogue to communist censorship. The solution to this problem is to involve social media users from transition countries in developing a social media policy for the local market. This inclusive way of policy development will allow residents of transition countries to feel as a part of the global Internet community. The solution to this problem is to involve social media users from transition countries in developing a social media policy for the local market. This inclusive way of policy development will allow residents of transition countries to feel part of the global Internet community.
Considering all of the above, I will allow myself to supplement the policy recommendations proposed in the article “The Digital Technology Agenda at the Summit for Democracy” with several points related to the Western policy in transition countries.
Priority should be placed on digital democracy tools in transition countries:
- Seize the opportunity to spread the values of democracy in transition countries through the development of new technologies, using the principle of inclusiveness;
- Contribute to the development of the IT industry in transition countries, considering it not only as an economical, but as a social and cultural phenomenon, as an “entry point for democratic values”;
- Engage IT companies from transition countries in working out a strategy for the development of digital democracy tools, and in the future to create digital democracy products;
- To involve civil society of transition countries in the development of new ethical standards, privacy, security, and free expression in global social networks and other global information platforms.
