OECD Civil Society Forum: Towards a fair digital economy

The Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC) is launching the Civil Society Forum to be held on 21 June 2016 in the context of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2016 Ministerial Meeting on the digital economy.

The Civil Society Forum has the purpose of engaging the OECD, its member countries, and others in a dialogue with civil society — non-governmental organisations (NGOs), activists and scholars — on fundamental social concerns, working “towards an inclusive, equitable, and accountable digital economy”. The OECD Ministerial Meeting will set the direction for nternet policy-making towards 2030, and it will have panels on privacy and data protection, consumer rights, internet openness and internet of things, among other prominent topics.

The agenda of the Civil Society Forum will include discussions with NGOs, activists and scholars active in internet policy-making, and also high level speakers from the OECD. The Civil Society Forum topics are “The secrets of surveillance capitalism”, a review of the progress made by the OECD in the adoption of the Civil Society Seoul Declaration, and emerging issues of the digital realm and their implications for civil society. The Forum also aims to set the civil society goals with regard to the OECD.

The Forum will be opened by Marc Rotenberg, President of Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), together with Andrew Wyckoff, Director of the OECD’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation. Shoshana Zuboff will give a keynote on The Secrets of Mass Surveillance, followed by Bruce Schenier’s keynote to cover cyber security issues. The CSISAC is happy to announce speakers for the Civil Society Forum: Joe McNamee (EDRi), Suso Baleato (CSISAC), Amie Stepanovich (EDRi member Access Now), Carolina Rossini (Public Knowledge), Fanny Hidvegi (EPIC), Luís Fernando García (R3D), Katitza Rodriguez (EDRi member Electronic Frontier Foundation, EFF), Gisela Pérez (Derechos Digitales), Mishi Choudary (SFLC), Cédric Laurant (Artículo 12), and many more.

CSISAC is the voice of civil society at the OECD Committee on the Digital Economy Policy. The CSISAC facilitates the exchange of information between the OECD and civil society participants, leading to better-informed and more widely accepted policy frameworks. Today, the CSISAC is the main venue to channel the participation of civil society in the OECD work on the digital economy.

CSISAC Forum: Towards an Inclusive, Equitable, and Accountable Digital Economy
http://csisac.org/events/cancun16/

OECD: Meeting the policy challenges of tomorrow’s digital economy
https://www.oecd.org/internet/ministerial/

(Contribution by Fanny Hidvegi, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), United States)