Putting Technology to Work for Democracy

Delighted that we have been able to make extra space available for this sold out event – but please don’t delay register now as the extra places are limited.

The research is clear: falsehoods travel twenty times faster than truth on Twitter. Political ads on Facebook reach more people at a lower price if you’re willing to feature outrageous content. And a steady stream of videos recommended by YouTube will take you from the merely sensational to the tin-foil-hat conspiratorial in a matter of minutes. Worse still – as consumers we’re not very good at noticing that this is happening or judging the difference between what’s real and what’s not online.

Despite the amazing pluses the Internet has brought to media and politics, we have to face the reality that the abuse of digital platforms is becoming a serious, perhaps fundamental, threat to our democracy. And that’s even before factoring in the role of hostile foreign actors.

Is it possible to construct an ambitious policy response that can start to steer technology development back to serving the democratic interest?

That’s the urgent question Progressive Centre UK will ask in an important new event.

The centrepiece of Putting Technology to Work for Democracy will be a major speech by Tom Watson MP, deputy leader of the Labour party/ HM Opposition and his party’s shadow secretary of state for digital, culture media and sport.

This will be followed by a lively non-partisan discussion – including crossbench member of the House of Lords Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE, the founder of 5Rights Foundation, which exists to articulate the rights of children in the digital environment and Ben Scott director of policy & advocacy at Luminate who has played a key role in formulating digital policy in both Washington DC and Berlin.

The event will take place at 10.30 on Wednesday 6th February at the Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. (right above Aldgate East tube).

Progressive Centre UK is a new network and think tank established to connect progressive Britain to the world. As part of the Global Progress network it operates as an international ideas exchange – sharing the latest thinking and experience from across the globe with a cross party UK audience hungry for innovative responses to the most important trends shaping our society.