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Global Digital Compact Wikimedia Advocacy Collaboration 2024

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This page is a campaign hub. It contains essential resources, key dates, and plans related to the Wikimedia movement's joint advocacy to influence the Global Digital Compact and thereby, discussions at the United Nations level.

Wikimedia Foundation (30 April 2023) - Contribution to Global Digital Compact

What is the Global Digital Compact

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The Global Digital Compact is a United Nations initiative to create an international doctrine to help ensure that digital technologies are used responsibly and for the benefit of all, while addressing the digital divide and fostering a safe and inclusive digital environment.

You can think of the final product as similar to the Sustainable Development Goals. It is an international effort to create a set of principles that will define a shared blueprint for a safe and rights-respecting online environment. These principles will be collaboratively created by United Nations member states, with input from civil society and industry actors around the world. The initiative originated as a proposal from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres's Common Agenda.

Why it matters: An opportunity for Wikimedia to shape international policy

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This is the first attempt by UN bodies to create a vision for where the world wants to go in terms of digital governance. Civil society actors like Wikimedia affiliates have the opportunity to shape the final doctrine and thereby ensure that important principles related to free knowledge are embedded in the Global Digital Compact for all to see. This is an important chance to bring our model of community-governance and decentralized content moderation to the international policy setting stage. It will also influence country-level regulation.

Member states are currently coming up with their own proposals for what the final global doctrine should say. They are engaging various stakeholders at the national level, including civil society. That means Wikimedians can push for the values and principles that matter for the free knowledge movement to thrive. Our goal is to leverage this opportunity to strengthen our movement's experience with (and contributions to) international policy setting.

Here's what is at stake: If Wikimedia is not able to have our model of community-led governance represented in the Global Digital Compact, then we enable a negative trend in legislation that keeps putting our model and projects at risk. Governments propose new legislation that is meant to regulate Big Tech, but inadvertently create legislation that would be harmful to Wikipedia. Most of the proposed measures threaten the ability of volunteers to moderate content on the projects. These measures also put pressure on the Foundation to collect more information about users and thereby threaten to reduce our privacy measures. This has been most prevalent in the context of legislation that is meant to reduce harmful content online such as the UK Online Safety Bill, Australian Basic Online Safety Expectations, and United States state laws on social media. We want to ensure that the Global Digital Compact takes our model into account in order to protect it at a higher level and avoid the need to fight it piecemeal with member states.

How: International advocacy collaboration across the Wikimedia movement

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The Wikimedia Foundation is organizing a campaign that will help Wikimedians from around the world engage in the GDC processes taking place in their countries.

Goal: Help member states incorporate key messages that are important for the Wikimedia movement

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The goal is to have each group push the same key messages. The assumption is that if this key message is included in the submissions of multiple countries, then there is a greater chance that aspects of our key message will be reflected in the final Global Digital Compact.

Three of the GDC topics are priorities for Wikimedia-related messages:

  1. Community-led platforms
  2. Digital public goods/digital public infrastructure
  3. AI for good

Who: Affiliates can participate at two different levels based on interest and availability

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The Wikimedia Foundation will play a coordinating role to help affiliates engage with the process, including creating and sharing resources like position summaries and hosting check-in calls.

Affiliates can choose to join a core working group, which will be very involved in the GDC process, or a general interest group which will be less time-intensive.

  • Core working group (high committment): This group will engage directly at the country level and be thought partners for WMF and other affiliates. Potential activities will include: (i) Help WMF create and amplify open letter; (ii) meet with government officials to share Wikimedia's key positions; (iii) organize events with partners to share Wikimedia's key positions; (iv) create media like blog posts sharing Wikimedia' key positions. This group will have regular check-in calls.
  • General interest group (low committment): We invite all interested Wikimedians to join this group! Members of this group plays an important support role. We will ask you to consider signing our open letter and help amplify content via your social media channels and newsletters. WMF will create a social media toolkit to support with this effort.

Timeline & Tactics

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Tactics
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  • WMF will draft an open letter with support from the core working group
  • Meetings with government officials to share Wikimedia key talking points
  • Blog posts and media to share Wikimedia key talking points
  • Social media amplification of Wikimedia media resources related to GDC
Resources that WMF will create
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  • [April 17] Position overviews related to the core GDC topics on which Wikimedians will engage
  • [April 17] Press toolkit including: (1) draft pitch email for you to translate, copy/past and use with your media contacts; (2) list of the contacts WMF will be pitching, so we don't duplicate; (3) a document of key messages and talking points for you to use as a resource; (4) a step-by-step guide of what you can do should you receive a positive response from a press contact
  • [April 19] Social media toolkit
  • [Published April 23] Open letter
  • Draft email template to send the open letter to key UN stakeholders
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The launch of the open letter on April 23 is our big event this month, with a lot of steps leading up to it. We will be using the open letter to influence key stakeholders in the GDC process to (a) remind them of our points (b) ask them what they submitted/think as a way to hold them accountable to engaging in the process. We will also be using the open letter to inform the general public in multiple countries about our vision for the GDC.

We'll be working together on the following core actions related to the release of the open letter:

  • (Important) Emails to country-specific stakeholders to draw their attention to the open letter
  • (Important) Social media posts to raise awareness about our open letter
  • (Optional) Sharing the open letter with the press

Detailed plans and actions:

  1. (Important) April 17-19 sign the final version of the open letter. By April 17 we will have a shared spreadsheet that lists core stakeholders for each country.Action: On April 17, review the final version of the open letter and get confirmaiton from your board and other stakeholders in order to sign it by April 19.
  2. (Important) Email country-specific stakeholders on April 23rd. By April 12 we will have a shared spreadsheet that lists core stakeholders for each country. By April 23rd we will also have shared an email template with you that you can use. Action: On April 23rd, email the contacts assigned to you.
  3. (Important) Share social media posts about open letter on April 23. By April 19 we will have a shared a social media toolkit with you. We will also determine at what time on April 23 core group members should post (this needs to be after the WMF social channels).Action: On April 23rd, share social media posts on your channels at designated time.
  4. (Optional)Pitch to local press contacts during the week of April 19. WMF will be pitching the story of our open letter to international and specialized media; we won't be pitching in countries. If you wish to create a press opportunity and pitch the story of your involvement to your press contacts, that's great. On April 17 WMF will share a press toolkit. It will include: (1) draft pitch email for you to translate, copy/past and use with your media contacts; (2) list of the contacts WMF will be pitching, so we don't duplicate; (3) a document of key messages and talking points for you to use as a resource. Action: Week of April 19, pitch to local press contacts to see if they are interested.
Timeline
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This process is complex and can be confusing, often with unclear deadlines. The table below will be updated as more information becomes available. This is a good resource to track updates.

GDC Campaign Timeline (March - Sept 2024)
March 7 - March 21 Formation of core working group.
March 8 Deadline for written input to GDC from Member states and stakeholders.
March 21 - April 15 Core working group provides input on open letter.
April 5 Zero Draft of the GDC is presented to member states & stakeholders.
April 1 - April 30 Soft launch of open letter at NetMundial conference in Brazil, including amplification of accompanying blog post.
April 19 - 21 Wikimedia Summit in Berlin - opportunity to collaborate in-person!
May 1 - May 15 Launch of open letter & advocacy collaboration at Global Wiki Advocacy Meet-up in Chile.
May 9-10 UN Civil Society Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
May 2 Second reading of GDC Zero Draft.
May 15 Third reading of GDC Zero Draft.
March - September 2024 Core working group and WMF identify opportunities for members of core working group to engage with GDC processes at the national level.
August 7- 10 Wikimania in Poland - opportunity to workshop & collaborate in-person.
September 22-23 Summit of the Future, NYC, USA.
September 24-27 United Nations General Assembly Ministerial Week, NYC, USA.

Resources

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Key links

Essential readings

  • WMF blog post that provides an introduction to what the Global Digital Compact is and why it matters to the Wikimedia movement. July 17, 2023.
  • WMF contribution to the GDC, which presents core positions on important thematic topics and demonstrate how to highligth both the Wikimedia model and the experience of Wikimedian communities and volunteers in relation to key issues like AI, copyright, digital public goods, and more. April 30, 2023.

Additional resources

  • Slide deck from WMF presentation on March 7, 2024, which provides an overview of the campaign plan for WMF and Wikimedia affiliates to jointly influence the Global Digital Compact between March - September of 2024.
  • Copy of speeches from WMF and affiliates on key topics during the thematic deep dives of the GDC. Good resource for talking points. February - June, 2023.
  • WMF talking points and written input on Decentralized Decision-making and Digital Commons. March 1 - 8, 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Where can I see what is happening at my country level?

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The country-level process will be different everywhere. This also means it is unclear where you can find the information. Here is how you can start to try to learn what is happening at the country level:

  • Google 'GDC process' + your country
  • Look at the website of the Foreign Ministry of your country
  • Look at the website of the Office of the UN Ambassador of your country
  • Contact your allies and others in your network and ask if they have more information
  • See if any key stakeholders from your country engaged in earlier rounds of the process, like via this part of the GDC website.

Where can I see what other organizations have participated in the process?

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Look at this page of submissions on the GDC website

Core Working Group Members

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Country level positions

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Australia

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There were only 2 submissions to the Global Digital Compact from Australia in April 2023:

Brazil

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Historically, and under the current administration, Brazil maintains a strong stance in favor of a multistakeholder model, while also criticizing the concentrated power of certain nations, notably the US and the EU, in Internet Governance. Brazil has primarily focused on bringing together non-dominant stakeholders to provide a broader perspective on internet governance negotiations, particularly from countries in the Global South.

Brazil's role in NETmundial+10 is expected to directly influence its position in the Summit for the Future and WSIS+20. In this capacity, Brazil has adopted an inclusive, welcoming approach to discussions, aiming to ensure equitable participation among diverse stakeholders.

These insights are gathered from informal conversations with key participants in the digital rights arena in Brazil and multistakeholder forums like the Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br). Brazilian expressions, not solely from the government, are channeled through CGI.br, a multistakeholder entity with various government representatives among its advisors. This entity holds direct influence over internet governance discussions within the federal government.

While there is no clear stance from the current Brazilian government on the GDC, there are some references that are worth taking into consideration:


Caribbean Region

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Chile

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Czechia

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Georgia

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Germany

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Ghana

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Nigeria

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United Kingdom

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Sweden

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