Epistemic Rights and Digital Communications Policies: Collective Rights and Digital Citizenship

Abstract

AbstractThe concept of ‘epistemic rights’ marks an important conceptual shift in thinking about the politics of digital technologies, going beyond such framings as digital inclusion, digital rights, and the digital divide. It observes that epistemic rights are associated with a universalist conception of digital rights that promotes access and use of digital technologies among under-served communities and a nation-building agenda for digital policy. This can be contrasted to an individualistic conception of digital rights, which focuses upon the need for to protect citizens from over-reach by the nation-state. The latter has historically had a strong influence over technology policies than the first, due to the role of ‘internet imaginaries’ developed in the 1990s, that view the internet in terms of the triumph of individualism over collectivism. Drawing upon the recent work of Thomas Piketty and his collaborators, this chapter will focus upon the last of these as a factor in the political tensions that exist in technology policy discourses, particularly as nation-state regulation of the internet and digital platform companies becomes more widespread. It will consider the extent to which a discourse framed around epistemic rights could bring together new political coalitions around technology policy that can cross the divide between technocratic decision-making and populist politics.