In the context of the new world arising after the invasion of Ukraine, we argue why and how a transatlantic initiative, led by a few EU nations, should create a new democratic digital and governance infrastructure that can represent at once a dual-use cyber/informational defense and democratic sovereignty capability initiative, as well as an open democratic global platform for fair and effective dialogue among all nations and geopolitical blocks, in line with the principles of the UN Charter.
(this post was first published as a blog post of the Trustless Computing Association, the entity from which our startup spun-out)
The invasion of Ukraine has turned out to be more than a reckless unprovoked war by a great power aiming to right perceived and actual historical wrongs. It has turned into the center stage and pitch battle of a worldwide clash of political models that has been brewing between equally-sized opposing camps, since the victors of the Cold War failed to foster a world order coherent to their declared principles and values.
It’s an all-out war for the hearts and the minds, by all means, that risks blowing in a nuclear confrontation. It is fought within all nations and between an increasingly-coordinated camp of authoritarian regimes and a camp neo-liberal social democratic ones, aggregated around NATO and the EU not dissimilar from that which led to the 2nd World War. The authoritarian camp has been gaining ground for many years to encompass half of the world economy and population.
While they have about equal military and technological strength, they share the same core actual and perceived political weaknesses, which are rooted in plutocracy - the concentration of economic power in a few dozens mega-billionaires, and the 0.1% of society, which expands inequalities and injustices - and propaganda - a degeneration of the digital media and communication system, which mines the trust in institutions and media systems, and the cohesiveness of society. The US top 0.1 percent owns now nearly as much as the bottom 90 percent. The 3 richest in the US own more wealth than the bottom 50%.
The EU, for its geographic position between the two blocks, its history, its economic size - and its historical relative successes in taming within its borders those weaknesses - could play a lead role to mitigate those problems to promote both peace and the advancement of the aspirational values of the West, by building a shared democratic digital communications infrastructure.
In a moment when the US has seemingly fallen in a loop of out-of-control excesses in neoliberalism, plutocracy, internal divisions, authoritarianism and in the power of Big Tech - the EU could take the lead in transatlantic relations via temporary “passage of the baton” with the US, but with a share governance on equal basis, aimed to decisively and timely mitigate the contradictions and degenerations of the Western model.
EU success in such a venture requires, to start, an understanding of the synergies between plutocracy and propaganda.
While plutocrats in authoritarian countries are much more temporary instruments of the autocrat in power, western plutocrats have much large strategic autonomy over political power. Western plutocrats, which includes large US financial and tech corporations, rely their direct and indirect power to deep manipulate and divide public opinion,in order to get them to approve or obstruct regulations that shift ever more economic and political power in their hands.
Western plutocrats rely, on their informational superiority - i.e. their ability to maintain their licit and illicit secrets and acquire instead those of others, which they have acquired in synergy and nearly on par with nation states - to exert power over politicians, civil society, global elites, politicians, journalists, competitors and other perceived adversaries.
Reining in western plutocrats and propaganda may seem impossible, as the entire global media system, outside authoritarian countries, is solidly in the hands of a few ultra-billionaire plutocrats that control leading media groups and a few globally oligopolistic platforms, like Meta, Apple or News Corporation - and their backers in the US political elites, and the financial ones, who have “bet the house” on their future valuations.
Regulating them is nearly impossible for the EU, when 27 nations have a right to veto, and for the US, when 50 senators do - not to mention their huge lobby power.
Yet, executive branches of a few EU nations, in coordination with key allies, could come together to build and promote a new democratic digital communications base infrastructure, in competition to those private platforms.
Such a digital and governance infrastructure should be completely or overwhelmingly conceived to run on top of current Internet infrastructure and in compliance with current international regulations, to prevent political roadblocks.
It should aim to ensure much improved standards security, privacy, public safety and public democratic discourse. It should seek to approximate a “free market of idea”.
It should seek hard to implement safeguards, checks and balances, uncompromising socio-technical transparency, democratic decentralization and win-win solutions to reconcile conflicting objectives, values and rights - such as privacy and lawful access - as well as counter the risk of excessive centralization.
Similarly to the social democratic model of public broadcasters - companies, private innovators, NGO and social organization would be free to innovate on top of it, while abiding to mandatory interoperability for public applications to prevent undue concentrations of power due to network effects.
It should be conceived, from the very start, to ensure a governance that is solidly globally-representative, so as to constitute a platform for fair and effective dialogue and cooperation at all levels of society, not only within and among nations in the Western camp, but also open and appealing to third nations, and then eventually to nations and civil society in the other camp.
Though never perfect, and drought with risks, it will easily outperform current dominant western systems which have mostly been blindlessly outsourced to a few tycoons, corporations or overreaching intelligence agencies.
Success, even just in noticeably reversing the trend of expanding plutocracy and propaganda degeneration, may turn out to be, for the West, the most effective instrument to prevail and unite hearts and minds - from Ukraine to Moscow, from Kansas city to Nairobi.
Such a digital and governance infrastructure could, if well carefully conceived, at once: (A) help bring a critical mass of EU nations together in an integrated defence and foreign policy via the EU enhanced cooperation mechanism, while mitigating the risks of concentration of power and potential far-right degenerations; (B) improve the democratic efficiency of EU and western institutions in providing for citizens’ wellbeing, foster a constructive “coo-petition” among nations and camps ; (C) and, most importantly, constitute a fair and effective basis for global dialogue, understanding and cooperation among geopolitical blocks across all levels of society, to sustain peace and tackle global challenges.
While it is absolutely crucial that such initiative is solidly lead through transparent participatory democratic constituent processes - through democratic nations, ethical experts and citizens assemblies - it could also attract the support of other civil society entities.
The initiative would face stark opposition from authoritarian forces and many plutocrats, and their proxies and surrogates. Yet, it could well attract some capable ultra-billionaires, and merely wealthy good-willed individuals, whose sense of responsibility towards humanity, their progeny or their legacy, may prevail over greed and cynicism, when faced with a sound plan to turn democracy into a solid instrument for promoting global public good.
After all, some of the richest plutocrats have called for “significantly” increasing taxes for the rich, and have devoted huge parts of their skills and resources to global public good initiatives, though rarely so far in democratic capacity building.
