Technology and Democracy

IRI’s two-pronged approach to information integrity focuses on increasing the availability and distribution of accurate, reliable information and reducing the impact of misinformation and hate speech on civic discourse and political processes. Given that all information ecosystems are unique and prone to rapid evolution, IRI focuses on building the capacity of democratic actors to respond effectively in their local contexts, and then scaling and sharing relevant best practices globally.

IRI implements information integrity programs in every region of the world. Examples of projects include the BEACON project, a Europe-wide effort that that uses data-driven analysis to develop political alliances to push back against Russian soft-power meddling in democratic processes. The BEACON team published a Media Monitoring Handbook in 2021 that serves as a basic starting point for researchers interested in conducting media monitoring but are not sure where to start as well as those looking to ensure methodological best practices are being applied. In Taiwan, IRI has supported innovative grassroots responses to China-linked election and health disinformation in country, and platforms those approaches in Asia and elsewhere in order to inspire and inform other civil society organizations combatting similar threats. This project led to the release of a joint report “Detecting Digital Fingerprints: Tracing Chinese Disinformation in Taiwan” with Graphika and the Institute for the Future.

Key resources published:

• Combating Information Manipulation: A Playbook for Elections and Beyond, jointly created with the National Democratic Institute and Stanford Internet Observatory, to increase the capacity of democracy partners to identify, respond, and build resilience to efforts to undermine election-related information integrity.   
• Going Digital: A Playbook for Legislatures, designed to guide legislatures seeking to replicate core functions safely and efficiently online when normal operations have been disrupted, and also for those looking to increasingly incorporate digital operations in their everyday legislative business.

IRI recognizes that combating digital threats and countering the negative use of technology only goes so far – we believe it is critical to develop a positive alternative: a positive global vision for what a digitally empowered democracy could – and should – look like. Through IRI’s civic and govtech programs, we support democratic actors the world over who are already using technology to advance democratic principles. The beneficiaries we support range from citizens using the Internet to organize and equalize who has a voice; sub-national governments implementing policies and technologies to increase accountability; and national governments deploying technology platforms to develop greater consensus.

IRI examines these local and subnational efforts, determines what works and shares that information with the global community of civic- and govtech actors. We aim to inspire technologically experienced and inexperienced actors alike to invest in innovative efforts to advance towards a positive vision of a digitally native democracy. IRI is investing in supporting the scaling, replication, and entrenchment of these subnational initiatives through financial and technical support – starting small, finding what works, iterating, and expanding our efforts as needed.

Democratic activists across the globe face increasing censorship and state surveillance intended to thwart their efforts to promote rights and freedom. IRI beneficiaries operating in repressive environments find that technologies, such as censorship circumvention tools, are critical to enhancing the capacity of independent media to operate in Latin America; the counter-surveillance technologies that help CSOs collaborate in the Middle East; and, in Asia, piercing information firewalls and supporting activists in repressive societies.

IRI supports critical internet freedom technologies and tools widely used by at-risk IRI partners to enable citizens worldwide to exercise their fundamental human rights online and to share these key technologies and resources with IRI partners who are less knowledgeable and do not have access to these resources. There is often an artificial separation between those developing internet freedom technologies and traditional democracy programming, which has led to a systematic lack of awareness of these tools in the traditional democracy community, as well as user interfaces that are needlessly inaccessible to those without a technology background. IRI is working to bridge this gap and develop user-friendly tools for non-technical users.

Please find an inventory of applications that IRI’s Technology & Democracy Practice regards as trusted tools for the DRG community. This inventory is not intended to be comprehensive. It is a curated set of resources which may provide invaluable for democratic actors to operate and work in a practical, safe, and secure way. 

Digital safety has become essential to ensuring the full political participation of vulnerable groups and individuals as they govern, run for office, organize advocacy campaigns, or participate in social movements. Without appropriate digital safety measures, democratic activists can be undermined by their own governments, hate groups, or foreign malign actors cheaply, easily, and at scale. This is true for every democratic actor, regardless of whether they consider technology to be important to their work. Cybersecurity and digital safety capacity building is thus embedded every IRI program.

To minimize partners and beneficiaries’ digital risks when implementing IRI programming in the field, IRI’s Technology and Democracy team created resources, such as the Cybersecurity Campaign Playbook, and trains these democratic actors on digital safety and cybersecurity risks and best practices. IRI aims to normalize these measures throughout the lifecycle of each program and activity so that cybersecurity programming and security and safety considerations are built into the core framing of all IRI programs globally and that IRI adheres to “do no harm” principles.

Societies around the world are being shaped by the rapid development and use of new technologies. In the fight for democracy, both leaders for democratic change and autocrats alike leverage emerging technologies for their own purposes. With the increasing availability of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, an important dynamic will be how AI systems can be used to help move countries toward democracy; how autocrats and other malignant actors can use AI to thwart democratic change; and how democracies can ensure emerging technologies are developed with respect for democratic principles, human rights and fundamental freedoms.  

IRI’s Technology and Democracy Practice focuses on building partner capacity to better understand, use and influence emerging technologies in ways that enhance rather than undermine the democratic cause. IRI aims to identify risks emerging technologies present to democracies, identify opportunities for democratic applications, and develop recommendations to guide partners as they establish guardrails for the safe use of these technologies. IRI’s Generative AI and Democracy Working Group specifically aims to answer to these questions, and intends to map threats, and share concerns, opportunities and recommendations for democratic actors to keep in mind as they consider the use of artificial intelligence and its impacts on democracies.