Digital rights: e-democracy, cyber security and digital inclusion

1. E-democracy: threats to e-democracy include disinformation campaigns and fake news which diminish trust levels among citizens and undermine the reliability of journalism and mediatic coverage. In order to combat online disinformation, tools such as the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), a hub for fact-checkers, should be more well-known and used in various fields such as business, industry, education
2. Cybersecurity: G has more potential entry points for attackers due to the less centralised nature of their architecture, greater number of antennas and increased dependency on software. We should have secure and equal reach/distribution of 5G networks in the EU; a mandatory EU certification scheme for IT products and more investments on research on IT security
3. With the increasing digitalisation, social exclusion also takes place in the digital space:
– modern-day digital services are mostly online, including e-government and e-justice services, online learning, teleworking and online financial services. Those fields should take into full consideration how to include communities left out. The Covid-19 reinforces digital access as a factor of exclusion
– gender equality is a key point to build a more equal and inclusive digital era. Women are under-represented at all levels in the digital sector. In the EU, for every 1,000 female graduates, only 24 have studied ICT-related courses. Only six of these women go on to work in a related professional role. Male graduates in the field currently outnumber females by almost 4 times, while those that go on to pursue a career in ICT make the gap become twice bigger
– digital and web accessibility should be widely improved. Less than 10 % of websites in Europe are accessible for persons with disabilities