Digital justice manifesto: A call to own our digital future

The Digital Justice Manifesto, launched by the Just Net Coalition, calls for the reclamation of digital power from 'intelligence corporations'. It proposes 16 principles centered on the individual and collective ownership of data, the treatment of key digital infrastructures as public utilities, and the democratic governance of datafication from a local-to-global perspective.

• The document argues that data is a key economic resource currently appropriated by corporations without permission, and asserts that data subjects must own their data both individually and collectively.
• The manifesto identifies 'intelligence corporations' as global businesses that use AI and cloud computing to control various sectors, including health, education, transport, and commerce, while avoiding accountability through remote operation.
• The authors call for key digital infrastructures—such as search engines, social networks, payment services, and e-commerce platforms—to be governed as public utilities, even if they are provided by private companies.
• The manifesto advocates for the decentralisation of techno-structures, including AI applications and cloud computing, and the mandating of interoperability to redistribute digital power.
• The document proposes that national communities should determine the terms of cross-border data flows and that data should remain under the primary jurisdiction of its country of origin.
• The manifesto suggests that workers in data-producing jobs, such as taxi drivers on platforms or farmers on agri-platforms, should have primary economic rights and ownership over the data they contribute.
• The authors argue that global data monopolies should be broken up by national and international competition regimes that focus on cutting problematic links in data and intelligence value chains.
• The document calls for the development of digital technical standards to be reclaimed by public interest bodies to prevent the end-to-end control currently held by corporations.

APA

Rowley, S. (2020). Digital justice manifesto: A call to own our digital future. World Association for Christian Communication. https://waccglobal.org/digital-justice-manifesto-a-call-to-own-our-digital-future/

Chicago

Rowley, Saskia. Digital justice manifesto: A call to own our digital future. World Association for Christian Communication, 2020. https://waccglobal.org/digital-justice-manifesto-a-call-to-own-our-digital-future/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Rowley |first1=Saskia |title=Digital justice manifesto: A call to own our digital future |publisher=World Association for Christian Communication |date=17 August 2020 |url=https://waccglobal.org/digital-justice-manifesto-a-call-to-own-our-digital-future/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rowley2020digital, author = {Rowley, Saskia}, title = {{Digital justice manifesto: A call to own our digital future}}, publisher = {World Association for Christian Communication}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://waccglobal.org/digital-justice-manifesto-a-call-to-own-our-digital-future/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }