A Civil Society Call to the New European Leadership

EPIC, along with 47 other civil society organizations, signed a joint statement following our participation in the Tech & Society Summit hosted by EDRi on October 1st in Brussels.

The joint statement calls for the new European Commission to:

• enable rights, social protection and safety instead of surveillance, control and expansion of police powers. This would create the conditions for healthy and thriving communities;
• prioritize the rights-based implementation and enforcement of digital laws and policies passed in recent years, including the GDPR, the DSA, the DMA and the EU AI Act;
• center the safety of online platforms, products and services for all, refraining from legislation that introduces mass surveillance in any form or which undermines cybersecurity protections;
• reject technosolutionism to address complex social or environmental problems – which can reinforce marginalization, increase surveillance and censorship of dissent, and harm vulnerable groups including journalists and human rights defenders, women, LGBTI people, racialized and minoritized people;
• move digitalization beyond the ‘growth at all costs’ mentality that is driving resource and labour
extraction and enshrining austerity policies. Instead, promote digital sufficiency, circularity, material use and waste reduction strategies that focus on reuse, refurbishment and repair;
• maintain offline alternatives to the all-encompassing digitalization of public and essential services, ensuring that no-one is excluded or left behind by digital ‘transformation’;
• promote an open, inclusive vision of Europe centered on human rights, equality and the rule of law, and protecting the human rights of migrants and people on the move;
• level the playing field by investing in real alternative technologies and economic models that don’t reproduce exploitative business models or further consolidate the power of tech companies.

EPIC works closely with international partners in the EU and beyond to strengthen digital rights globally. Some of our recent work includes joining a working group intent on stopping the global proliferation of spyware, submitting comments to regulatory agencies on various topics, and spotlighting global privacy projects through EPIC’s International Privacy Champion award.