What we focus on
In a digital society, the rights to privacy and freedom of communication are essential to increase the power of the people, while curtailing that of governments and corporations. With a special focus on those rights we commit to the following four, overlapping, programs from 2025 through 2027.
Young people and technology: It is key for young people to be able to grow in freedom. Just as important is that all young people should get the same opportunities. We will strive first of all for laws on young people online. We will stop measures that restrict the online freedom of movement of young people, while encouraging measures that protect young people against surveillance, manipulation, exploitation and discrimination facilitated by technology.
Young people should be protected against the state also. The profiling and discriminating of young people by the government should end. And finally, we should like to see more young people involved in the designing of technology laws and policies that affect them.
Security: These past years the government has assumed more and more power. In the form of new competences and technological tools, but also in the form of information. Government organizations increasingly process data on citizens, which makes it possible to “better” differentiate, steer and control those citizens. While governments become ever more powerful and untransparent, hiding behind spreadsheets and algorithms, citizens get squeezed.
Our main ambition is that in the social domain only social algorithms are used. The government should stop discriminating people intentionally and unintentionally based on data processing. Moreover, we want the government to stop discrediting and surveilling innocent citizens. Lastly, we want organizations that support people directly and thus know what challenges people face, to weigh in on the government’s data policy.
Civic space: In a democracy governed by the rule of law, civic space is vital to safeguard and promote such democracy. Social actors should be able to move freely, and the law must protect and facilitate these actors.
That is why we campaign for less Big Tech and more pluriformity in the information landscape, by resisting two extremely harmful Big Tech tactics: The profiling advertising engine and the manipulative design practices. We also guard against government interference: Big Tech cannot and may not become a one-stop shop for surveillance of our communication. Lastly, we oppose laws and policies that curb the space in which foundations and associations operate.
Bodily integrity: Everyone is the boss of their own body. And we should all be the boss of the data on our own bodies. We investigate the intertwining of the profiling advertising industry and health apps. Also, we mobilize people against corporations that develop products based on our body data. Just think of facial recognition systems, deep fakes or “smart” cameras that can classify people in the street. We call those corporations to account. Finally, it is our ambition to get a broad movement off the ground against the exploitation of our bodies.