Illan Acher & Marwa Azelmat :
If, like us, you are young today, then you are part of the largest global youth population that ever existed. But 90% people ages 10-24 live in the world’s low- and middle-income countries, where online resources – while crucial for our futures – are hardest to access.
Even if you are lucky enough to be online, you face the reality that digital technology does not work for you. It doesn’t speak your language or respect your freedoms or choices. The people behind these technologies do not look like you. They are far less diverse, far more privileged, and way more powerful. They live and work within echo chambers that are not designed to tackle injustice nor governed with your most pressing needs in mind.
You may think that having an internet connection means you can hack this system and turn the decision-making table in your favor. However, the exclusion of young people from the shaping of online spaces goes beyond infrastructure. It plays out concurrently at different levels: in digital divides, in the lack of meaningful participation, and in concentrations of power.
While the United Nations recently called for universal access to the internet to be recognized as a human right, digital divides remain widespread. In high-income countries, 90% of the population is connected to the internet. But this figure falls to just 27% in so-called least developed countries and plunges to 19% for women there. These divides are compounded by the absence of digital education, as well as the marginalization of languages that lack the hegemony of English and a few others.
As a result, while some of us can enjoy the luxury of smart wearables and synchronized digital tools, the majority is left behind. Many are unable to access economic and employment opportunities, vital health information, educational resources, and a whole range of other human rights whose full realization and enjoyment depend on digital technology and internet connectivity.
A lack of meaningful participation
Access is, however, not a panacea. Participation in the online space is still a fraught process for young people, who are on the front lines but rarely at the forefront.
Some of us are considered fit enough to play a role in the digital space: engineers, tech startup founders, innovators, and even glitch fixers. Yet we remain unfit to shape that space and the decisions that determine what we see, share, or engage with online on a daily basis. All of us have to conform to laws, rules, and policies regulating our behaviors in the digital space that have not been informed by us.
Moreover, our attempts at participation can be threatened, censored, or even shut down. This speaks to the case of the many young women human rights defenders whose stories have been silenced because digital platforms deemed their behavior inappropriate, not to mention all the young people who have been outed in digital contexts hostile to diverse genders and sexualities.
Concentrations of power
It’s as if we are trapped at the back of a speeding train. We cannot decide where it is heading or get off the train. That train runs not on steam or electricity but on our personal data.
Big tech companies are among the richest corporations that have ever existed. Their tremendous wealth reflects their power in an oligarchic system that provides few alternatives.
For instance, the 2021 outage of services provided by Facebook – now known as Meta – showed our excessive reliance on the company’s platforms, as small businesses in low- and middle-income countries suffered major disruptions. Two years earlier, a journalistic investigation found that Google had been increasingly interfering with its search engine results, favoring big businesses over smaller ones.
The concentration of power in the digital space is a serious challenge to our autonomy. The business models of these companies – which are based on the extraction of personal data for profit – can be detrimental to our well-being. The commodification of data in the “attention economy” has led to the expansion of content that puts users’ mental health and democracy in danger. For instance, research has shown the negative impact of Instagram on teenagers’ mental health and the propensity of social media to amplify misinformation.
Toward a rights-respecting digital space
For all of its fault lines, can we afford to disengage from the digital space? We can’t! However, leaving young people to bear the brunt of digital injustices is too high a price to pay. Everyone is losing out, but it is our generation that shoulders the burden.
We are missing the voices, experience, and contributions of those among us who do not have the means to speak out. To achieve a world in which digital technology benefits us all, the digital divides must be bridged. Meaningful participation must be enabled. Concentrations of power that define the digital space must be challenged by stronger democratic control over the development of technology.
Young people, like the wider population, need the chance to be informed about the terms on which power is distributed in the digital space. This calls for more research and education, including rapidly improving digital literacy.
(Illan Acher is part of Fondation Botnar’s Young Professionals Program, where he works on human rights in the digital age as a program specialist. Marwa Azelmat is the women’s rights policy lead at the Association for Progressive Communications).
