PL 3: European Digital Economy and COVID-19 pandemic – current state of affairs, risks, and opportunities

Rapporteur: Natasa Perucica, Geneva Internet Platform

• The main question that we as society need to answer: Is COVID-19 ushering in a fundamental digital paradigm shift?

• To bridge the gap of the digital divide, telcos need to apply a forward looking approach that promotes investment and co-investment in both the short and long term, in addition to building trust and up-skilling on ICT matters in order to facilitate improvements

• There should be no contradiction between data protection and health. Independent oversight and audits should be applied to technologies such as contact tracing to ensure privacy and data protection.

• In the road ahead, we need to think about the type of sustainable society that we want to create and what role digital technology will play in this society.

• Science has a key role to play in the hybrid and flexible future as it allows for an evidence-based approach to the technological industry.