On March 27, 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 60/252, proclaiming May 17 as World Information Society Day (#diadeinternet) to promote proper use and spread the enormous benefits that the Internet and digital technologies provide for all people.
In each edition, the Steering Committee (SC) for Internet Day, made up of more than 50 social organizations, including the Spanish Banking Association, chooses a theme on which to focus actions and activities to celebrate the occasion.
The theme chosen for the 2023 edition is ‘Digital Citizenship: Rights and Opportunities‘, unanimously approved at the first meeting of the Steering Committee. For this reason, this Decalogue of measures was created to promote access to and use of digital technologies in our society and to place people at the center of an increasingly digitalized world.
Manifesto
1. Placing people and their rights at the center.
Ensuring that new digital spaces are spaces of law. Rights already existing in the analog world must be respected, while working to promote the rights demanded by this field, such as the right to privacy, to be forgotten, to digital disconnection, or to algorithmic non-discrimination, as set out in Spain’s Charter of Digital Rights.
2. Increasing and guaranteeing accessibility and, therefore, the inclusion of individuals.
The inclusion of all people requires guaranteeing accessibility, which is the condition that environments, processes, goods, products, and services, as well as objects, instruments, tools, and devices, must meet to be understandable, usable, and practicable by all people under safe conditions and in the most autonomous and natural way possible.
3. Guaranteeing the safety and protection of individuals in the digital environment.
Promoting the safe use of digital technologies for citizens to allow them to strengthen their confidence in the digital sphere, taking into account the level of knowledge or proximity to technology of specific groups, such as the elderly. To this end, it will be necessary to provide them with knowledge, skills, and tools regarding cybersecurity through projects, awareness and training campaigns, and specialized support services that help them incorporate measures and habits to increase their level of protection against Internet threats.
4. Providing literacy and training for the use of technologies in people’s activities.
Promoting public policies for the dissemination, provision, and recognition of digital competence centers, their professionals, and the networks they belong to as reference spaces in Spain where citizens can freely and gratuitously acquire and practice the digital skills necessary for the exercise of their rights and personal and professional goals. The role of these spaces/resources is fundamental in creating a critical and reflective citizenry that can address the challenges of digital transformation and, at the same time, they must be recognized as essential public spaces in guaranteeing the fulfillment of citizens’ digital rights.
5. Promoting ethical, transparent, and responsible Artificial Intelligence.
Developing ethical AI that generates trust and transparency in its use to enhance the positive effect it can have on society and the economy. Paying special attention to areas such as privacy and data protection, health, public services, or the work environment, avoiding discrimination and bias for different reasons. Empowering citizens so they can benefit from the advantages provided by technology and make their own decisions. Facilitating human supervision and intervention in decisions that produce effects on their personal and financial spheres.
6. Facilitating access to digital administration.
A digital administration must promote, safeguard, and commit to open data and standards, as well as collaboration and understanding of digital technologies alongside civil society and companies, facilitating a digital citizenship that avoids technological welfare and promotes measures for the empowerment and digital training of its citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, such as people with disabilities, the elderly, and other groups at risk of digital exclusion.
7. Contributing to sustainable development and the involvement of all stakeholders.
Training and updating citizens so they are aware of technological development as it affects them and make use of new technologies in a sustainable way from an environmental point of view, but also from the perspective of a humanistic development of technology.
8. Promoting digital rights in new regulatory developments.
Paying special attention to new legislative reforms, supporting them and providing them with the appropriate resources to make them viable and effective in the digital context for all citizens.
9. Promoting participation in the digital environment.
Starting from full respect for the right to dignity, freedom, interests, and preferences. Promoting effective participation and social life so that all people are contextualized in the Digital Society and can occupy the role that corresponds to them, under equal conditions and without discrimination.
10. Providing the necessary resources to put these principles into practice.
Developing policies and actions that facilitate access to the equipment, applications, connectivity, training, and information necessary for the digital life of all people. Implementing plans with sufficient resources that are guaranteed over time and formally committed to. Paying special attention to groups at higher risk of exclusion and promoting the opportunities derived from full digital citizenship.
