Digital Watch Observatory - Digital Governance in 50+ issues, 500+ actors, 5+ processes
Hidden beneath the oceans lies a fragile but essential network whose security and resilience are increasingly seen as vital to the stability of the global digital economy.
Discussions at the summit focus on tech innovation, partnerships, and market entry, with long-term collaboration a key priority.
Officials say safeguarding digital infrastructure is vital for Europe’s digital competitiveness, security, and economic future.
The ban on under-16s in Australia has led to mass Snapchat account removals, while platforms caution that current age-assurance tools remain unreliable and open to circumvention.
The debate over privacy reform has intensified in the EU after France opposed Commission plans to reshape personal data concepts within the GDPR.
The European Defence Agency plans a secure data network to accelerate decision-making and protect sensitive defence information across the EU.
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Deepfake pornography, consent, and power in synthetic media
The rise of AI pornography reveals bigger societal risks, where sexual representation becomes detached from lived experience and consent is reduced to a technical obstacle rather than a social principle.
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ChatGPT and the rising pressure to commercialise AI in 2026
OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go launch highlights growing pressure to monetise AI without ads, as investor expectations reshape sustainable business models.
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Inside NeurIPS 2025: How AI research is shifting focus from scale to understanding
This year’s NeurIPS awards highlight a shift in AI research, focusing less on bigger models and more on understanding how systems learn, generalise, and behave responsibly.
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WSIS+20 Process
The year 2025 marks 20 years since the finalisation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and a review process looking at 20 years of WSIS outcomes implementation will conclude with a high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), in December. This page keeps track of the process leading to the UNGA meeting in December 2025. It also provides background information about WSIS and related activities and processes since 1998.
Explore the Observatory
Digital Technologies
From internet applications to quantum computing, we focus on advanced and emerging digital technologies which are increasingly reshaping our economies and societies.
Clusters of Policy topics
We unpack digital policy by exploring over 50 topics – from access and sustainable development to network security and the future of work – classified in 7 clusters.
Processes
Follow some of the most important digital policy processes, from the EU's work on the Digital Services Act/Digital Markets Act to the UN Cybercrime Ad Hoc Committee.
