Look around: nearly everything is going digital. Never in history has humankind enjoyed so much technology. The combination of internet, broadband connectivity, smartphones, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence is helping to tackle some of today's greatest social and environmental challenges. Nevertheless, dystopian visions of technology dominate the public opinion. People increasingly perceive digitalization as a driver of inequalities, degradation of living standards and lack of confidence.

A key reason is that today´s policy and legal frameworks were not built for the digital age and the fast changes brought about by the digital transformation have left many norms, policy and international processes outdated. There is an urgent need to modernize and create a better digitalization that is sustainable and empowers people. Both governments and businesses should adopt a more responsible behaviour and collaborate closer to achieve such a human-centric digitalization. It is time for our societies to debate and agree what we want our digital future to look like. Telefonica has published a Manifesto that asks for a New Digital Deal to create an inclusive, fair and trusted digitalization, focusing on five building blocks:

1. Connect everyone. Without broadband connectivity, there is no digitalization and the public and private sector should cooperate to connect the unconnected, focusing on creating sustainable business models and innovation for rural areas.
2. Support people through digital transformation. Artificial intelligence and automatization will profoundly disrupt work and job markets. Education, fiscal and social systems will need to be reformed to avoid a new digital divide. Technology should help diminish inequalities, not broaden them, and our common objective therefore needs to be to leave no one behind.
3. Deliver trust in data. Data can enrich people’s lives, benefiting businesses and advancing society as a whole. However, people increasingly do not feel in control of their data, resulting in a lack of trust and confidence. A human-centric model would enable everyone to decide how and when their data is used by improving transparency and giving real choice. Such new data ethics goes beyond pure compliance with data protection regulation and strives to empower people and put them in control.
4. Foster ethical and accountable use of Artificial Intelligence and algorithms. Business should make sure that algorithms do not take decisions that are unethical, undue discriminate or create anti-competitive outcomes. Companies will be held accountable for negative impacts of Artificial Intelligence on societies and people in much the same way as for damaging the environment.
5. Modernise our policies and institutions to make them fit for the digital era. Policies, regulation and authorities have not kept up with the fast pace of technological change and need a profound review. A “Digital Bill of Rights” could protect fundamental rights of people online based on broadly accepted values like fairness and non-discrimination, responsibility, inclusiveness, accountability and transparency. Policies need to make sure that companies can compete on fair grounds on a Level-Playing-Field and consumers are protected. Regulators should strive to promote innovation and leave room for experimentation, but also closely monitor market developments to be able to intervene quickly, if necessary.

A New Digital Deal might be defined on national or regional levels, but would need to be underpinned by close international cooperation and improved transnational governance mechanisms. Such a “Smart Digital Governance” should be collaborative, transnational and agile:

1. Collaboration among many stakeholders is necessary because public administrations often do not have all the information, intelligence and resources necessary in a fast-changing digital environment. The vast majority of internet infrastructure and digital services are owned and operated by the private sector, so finding the best solutions will often need their collaboration and knowledge. Similarly, involving civil society´s view early will make solutions closer aligned with public interest and thus easier to implement Public and Private stakeholders share often the same objectives, but specific responsibilities for each stakeholder group would improve their collaboration.

2. Transnational alignment of norms and policy is needed due to the global nature of the internet and digital services. Issues like cross-border data flows or cybersecurity can best be treated through international cooperation and aligned approaches. Policy processes and instruments might differ in relation to the issues tackled. Positive examples vary from the Budapest Convention on Cybercrimes by the Council of Europe, a traditional international treaty negotiated and signed by over 60 states, to the NETmundial Multi-stakeholder Statement that defined Internet Governance principles through and open, multi-stakeholder process. Sometimes, especially for value-related issues, initially only a regional approach might be possible, but can later be broadened and aligned with other jurisdictions. An example is the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that has harmonized privacy regulation across the EU Members States and is now enabling international data flows through so-called adequacy decisions with other states like Japan or Canada, avoiding ultimately fragmentation.

3. Agile governance would include using principle-based approaches, self- or co-regulation mechanism and fostering platforms for learning and debate. Self-regulation initiatives of private companies like the Cybersecurity Tech Accord have been acting on improving cybersecurity when international policy agreement between states has not (yet) been possible. Regulatory sandboxes where companies are allowed to experiment, but are supervised by authorities, might provide a way forward to improve trust for new disruptive technologies like AI and Blockchain. The Internet Governance Forum has been an important platform for debate and catalyst of common views and should be better resourced to be able to provide also learning and best-practice sharing in a more institutionalised way.

In today´s challenging geopolitical environment we might see for international digital governance most likely a patchwork of diverse solutions and processes, often only on regional levels and rather including incremental improvements. Nevertheless, now is the time to move to the next level of Internet Governance, to create a Smart Digital Governance, where stakeholders, both public and private, work together on collaborative solutions for increasingly complex, global digital issues. We need keep evolving existing policy and governance processes and experiment with new approaches.

One thing is for sure: More, not less, collaboration between stakeholders will be needed to define a New Digital Deal and create a sustainable digitalization that focuses on people and is inclusive, trusted and fair.