The Constitution Unit Blog

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • Brexit
  • Parliament
  • Elections and referendums
  • Democratic Engagement and Citizens’ Assemblies
  • Government
  • Devolution
  • Events
  • Other themes
    • Judiciary and human rights
    • Parties and politicians
    • Constitutions and constitution making
    • Freedom of information
    • Monarchy, church and state
  • About the Constitution Unit
  • Copyright

Tag Archives: TheyWorkForYou

Digital technology and the resurrection of trust: the report of the House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee

Posted on July 10, 2020 by The Constitution Unit

IMG.20191203.WA0004.jpg

The House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee has published a report about how democracy can be done better as technology evolves, which endorsed Unit Deputy Director Alan Renwick’s key recommendation of a democratic information hub. Alex Walker offers an analysis of the report.

On 29 June, the House of Lords Select Committee on Democracy and Digital Technology published a major report, following its inquiry into the effects of digital technology on democracy. The report focuses on how the practices of many large digital technology platforms risks feeding an erosion of trust in democracy and sets out a regulatory framework designed to restore faith in the system. Importantly, it goes beyond this to look at improving digital skills and using technology to aid democratic engagement.  

The committee’s recommendations on fact-checking, digital imprints, libraries of online political advertising, and promotion of digital literacy echo those of many earlier analyses, including those of the Electoral Commission and the Independent Commission on Referendums, as well as the Unit’s Doing Democracy Better report, published last year. Drawing on one of the core proposals of Doing Democracy Better, the Unit’s Deputy Director and author of the report Alan Renwick, along with co-author Michela Palese and Joe Mitchell (then of Democracy Club), gave written evidence to the committee setting out the case for an independent democratic information hub. The committee fully endorsed the proposal.  Continue reading →

Posted in digital democracy, Elections and referendums, Public Engagement and Policy Making | Tagged 2017 general election, 2019 general election, citizens' assemblies, citizenship education, Committee of Advertising Practice, Coronavirus, deliberative democracy, Democracy and Digital Technolgies Committee, Democracy Club, Department for Education, digital campaigning, digital democracy, disinformation, Doing Democracy Better, elections, Electoral Commission, electoral law, Estonia, Facebook, fact-checking, filter bubbles, Finland, imprints, Independent Commission on Referendums, Innovation in Democracy Programme, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Joe Mitchell, Lord Puttnam, misinformation, mySociety, Ofcom, Office for Budget Responsibility, ombudsman, online harms, political advertising, Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act, PPERA, TheyWorkForYou | 1 Comment

Monitor 80: Defending Democracy

Front page of Monitor 80, a newsletter, displaying a fragment of the lead article, and an image of Prime Mniiser Borid Johnson meeing wih Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a room. The two are sat in wooden chairs wih he flags of their respective countries in background

The latest edition of the Constitution Unit newsletter, Monitor, is now available to download.

What Kind of Democracy do we Want?

Taking Back Control

A picture of the front page of the Unit's report, Taking back control: why the House of Commons should govern its own time, including a picture of a clock

Enter your e-mail address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by e-mail.

Join 2,471 other followers

Unit Mailing List: Sign up to receive notifications of of our events, newsletter and publications

Link to Join the Unit's Mailing list
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • The Constitution Unit Blog
    • Join 2,471 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Constitution Unit Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...