Local and global voices for digital justice were at the forefront of a WACC side event to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+20 on Tuesday co-organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC).

WACC, in collaboration with WCC, is leading ecumenical voices for a people-centered digital transformation at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event being held on 7–11 July in Geneva.

WACC’s 7-person delegation includes partners from the Philippines, Zimbabwe, and Costa Rica, who shared their local digital justice perspectives and the status of discussions at WSIS+20, which will be shaping digital governance for years to come.

Many of the issues facing the original WSIS in 2003 have come back to haunt us – but now, with that magic word “digital” attached to them, noted WACC General Secretary Philip Lee. “And so do the same questions about, who owns this stuff? Who has access to it? What does it mean to have access to it? What do you do with it?”

Historically, conversations at WSIS have focused on getting people online, with the idea that benefits for everyone will flow from this, added WACC Deputy General Secretary Sara Speicher.

“We at WACC know from our experience that access alone will not solve the issues. We want to prioritize community-centered solutions. We need to look at digital opportunities.”

Digital in the public interest

“When we talk about digital justice, it’s basically human rights and justice but in a digital setting,” explained Xian Guevara, deputy secretary general of the Computer Professionals Union, an organization of IT professionals and digital rights advocates in the Philippines that is a WACC partner.

This means being people centered, Guevara stressed. When it comes to development, the idea is not just to have more tools like robots or AI. It’s development that is needed by the people.

“If we want to actually say AI for good, it should be AI for the masses, for the general public.”

Close, not widen, the digital gap

Patience Zirima, executive director of Gender and Media Connect, a WACC partner in Zimbabwe, described her work in promoting gender equality in the media. A digital justice issue that has arisen not just for women journalists but for women in the global South more broadly is AI bias.

She pointed out that if a Black woman from Africa looks at a large-language model, she isn’t going to see herself reflected there. GMC has been working over time to address stereotypes and representation in media, “how women can see themselves in the digital spaces,” Zirima said.

“We have been trying to get more voices of women and [to see] how gender is supposed to be a key issue when we’re looking at all the different actions and action points that the WSIS speaks about.”

From connectivity to community

Kemly Camacho, cofounder and general coordinator of the Sulá Batsú Cooperative, a WACC partner in Costa Rica, shared how local communities are vulnerable to technologically driven manipulation and bias.

“One really big concern about digital justice for us at this moment is about the excessive consumption of technology, the use of the technology without time to stop and reflect why this technology is important. And for what? We are really just consuming these technologies.”

Rural, Indigenous communities that Sulá Batsú works with look at the role digital technologies play in their spaces to find the solution that best suits the specific configuration of their community and their needs – which may not align with a Western idea of connectivity.

“This is digital justice for us,” Camacho said.

Work to be done

The speakers fielded questions from those gathered, including inquiries about CO2 emissions coming from the cooling of data centers, as well as how much water the centers require for cooling.

Camacho agreed that water considerations are very important and urged churches to advocate for governments to take responsibility for the location of data centers.

Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of communication, said she was grateful that the WCC could host the group.

“As communicators standing for digital justice, there is clearly more work to do, and we have been able to learn from one another,” she said. “To be continued!”

Xian Guevara from the Computer Professionals Union, a WACC partner in the Philippines, talks about digital justice work his organization is doing. To his right is Patience Zirima of Gender and Media Connect. Photo: WCC/Rhoda Mphande.