Overview and Background

The digital harms ensuing from Big Tech’s largely unchecked development significantly affect civic and social life, and, crucially, democratic engagement. Online information ecosystems have fueled polarization, while the market dominance of major technology companies stifles competition and puts key decisions that shape democracy outside accountable political institutions. 

The stakes are high. Recognizing that these challenges demand urgent attention, Columbia World Projects and the Centre for Digital Governance at the Hertie School launched Digital Governance for Democratic Renewal in September 2023. With support from the Knight Foundation, this network of researchers, regulators, policymakers, journalists, technologists, and civil society advocates from both sides of the Atlantic aims to uncover tech policy solutions that address the challenges large digital platforms pose to democratic institutions and discourse.

Summary

Despite sharing many goals with respect to digital regulation, the U.S. and EU operate under distinctly different conditions, from their orientation to free speech, civil society, regulatory regimes, and more. With a view to these differences, the network’s first series of meetings – from September 2023 to May 2024 – brought together over 80 experts to explore how to support the implementation of the Digital Services Act and Digital Market Act, two groundbreaking European regulations, with the expectation that this will shape how platforms operate in and influence U.S. and EU markets and societies. The network considered how recent EU regulatory innovations might be adapted in the U.S. context, and, in turn, how related efforts in the U.S. might contribute to positive outcomes in the EU.

Meeting topics ranged from data access and use, including platform-to-researcher frameworks for diagnosing and treating online harms; alternative business models and technical interventions – including “middleware” and data portability mandates – to counter Big Tech’s market concentration; and emerging content moderation practices, dilemmas, and solutions that respect user privacy and expression. 

Building on insights from these meetings, the next phase of Digital Governance for Democratic Renewal aims to construct a common language for understanding broad dilemmas facing digital regulators and researchers and pinpoint solutions that move toward democratic outcomes on both sides of the Atlantic. As initial steps, we launched a working group in November 2024 exploring how to build capacity for platform data access by organizing, securing, and sustaining funding for academics, journalists, and civil society organizations engaging in platform research and oversight, and a speaker series on designing and governing platforms that stabilize and support democracy.