Ireland must safeguard digital rights during its EU Presidency

One of the five strategic priorities in the government’s policy programme of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union is to “advance the Union’s positions on responsible digital governance.” Digital rights are the foundation for achieving this. They help protect our human rights in the digital age and make technology safer, fairer, and more inclusive, especially for people affected by poverty and injustice.

In recent years, the EU has been at the forefront of digital policymaking contributing to setting high human rights standards for digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). These are the protections that keep everyone’s data safe, ensure fair competition in digital markets, and hold governments and corporations accountable for digital harms. Through to the so-called ‘Brussels effect’ and the EU’s engagement in global internet governance processes, these standards have had an impact outside the EU. Many countries around the world have adopted similar measures to regulate the development and deployment of digital technologies. 

According to the latest Digital Decade Eurobarometer survey, a large majority of EU citizens[MC1]  places protecting privacy and security online and making digital tools more accessible for everyone as top objectives to be pursued in the next 10 years. Yet, under the banner of ‘simplifying’ digital rules, the EU has launched a policymaking initiative known as the Digital Omnibus targeting critical rules on data protection, cybersecurity and AI systems. While a deal impacting fundamental rights and accountability in AI development and deployment has already been reached, negotiations between EU institutions are expected to continue during the Irish Presidency on data protection, privacy and cybersecurity, among other digital rights issues. These negotiations are where many important safeguards risk being weakened, instead of advancing responsible digital governance that helps people exercise their rights and companies meet their obligations. The risk is also setting a dangerous precedent for global digital governance undermining human rights standards for digital technologies worldwide.

Digital rights protections are needed now more than ever. New technologies are enabling both targeted and mass violations of fundamental rights on an unprecedented scale, including in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. For women, children, older people[MC2] , LGBTQIA+ people, people with disability, and racial, ethnic and religious minorities, the impacts of such misuses of digital technologies are often greater. At the same time, a handful of technology companies are consolidating massive corporate power and in turn exerting disproportionate influence over regulatory processes. Such power enables them to set the terms of digital engagement for billions of people worldwide with so little transparency or accountability. As these companies expand their product offerings to include AI systems, their existing advantages in terms of data access and political influence threaten to create a permanent divide between those who benefit from these technologies and those who do not. 

In its Presidency role, Ireland occupies a unique position in charting the course of what comes next. This is the opportunity to demonstrate in practice the Government’s commitment to empowering people to thrive in a digital society. 

We call on ireland to:

• Put fundamental rights and the public interest at the centre of digital governance and ensure openness and transparency in ongoing negotiations. This includes formal consultations with civil society organisations and human rights experts from within and outside of the EU;
• Safeguard the EU’s digital rulebook by improving guidance and access to resources to support effective enforcement of existing flagship laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation, Digital Market Act and Digital Services Act;
• Advance implementation of the International Digital Strategy by championing human rights standards for digital technologies in international fora such as the Internet Governance Forum;
• Use the Dublin AI Summit to advance a human-centric and evidence-based approach to AI governance by ensuring meaningful inclusion of civil society in the discussions, alongside representatives from governments, multilateral institutions and the private sector.