Firstly, the Nordic Centre for Tech and Democracy should organise and coordinate a stronger Nordic voice on ambitious tech regulation and support national enforcement. This need has grown in recent years as the tech sector has increased lobbying resources dramatically. To secure a more level playing field and counterbalance the discussions around digital democracy, the Centre should pool resources and expertise from the Nordic countries. Accordingly, the Centre should collect the most pressing challenges related to the functions of Big Tech identified by civil society and research communities and distribute these to relevant national and European authorities.
Secondly, the Centre should track Big Tech’s compliance with European regulation such as the Digital Services Act in the Nordic region, to support the relevant authorities’ enforcement of legislation. As a key part of the Digital Services Act, the largest tech platforms will be obligated to publish an annual risk assessment and commission an independent audit of the systemic risks of their platforms. These new obligations should increase transparency related to the negative impacts of their platforms on society, democracy and well-being, especially regarding children and youth. The Nordic Centre for Tech and Democracy should work to hold relevant tech companies responsible by examining and challenging these assessments, potentially in the role of a ‘trusted flagger’. To that end, the Centre should build a Nordic panel of experts who annually present their analysis and possible objections to these assessments. Further, they should engage with the European Commission, which enforces the transparency obligations of very large online platforms at the European level, as well as national authorities where relevant.
Importantly, the Centre should act independently from both the tech sector and Nordic political systems and be led by a board of relevant Nordic researchers, legal experts and NGOs within the field.