Digital Watch Observatory - Digital Governance in 50+ issues, 500+ actors, 5+ processes
Plus, AI governance updates; MoltBookAI; more countries moving to bar children from social media; TikTok’s addictive design breaching the DSA; governments doubling down on digital sovereignty; and China proposing exit bans for cybercriminals.
European Commission finds TikTok safeguards insufficient to curb excessive screen time.
Legislation in Slovenia would ban social media access for children under 15.
Parliament groups debate adding a clear ban on nudification tools to the EU's AI omnibus, following a surge in concern over non-consensual image generation.
By separating workflow design from search strategy, EnCompass gives developers flexible control over how AI agents evaluate and optimise LLM outputs.
Amazon disputes the ruling and claims the decision contradicts EU consumer standards, as Germany intensifies scrutiny of powerful digital platforms.
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Analysis
AI in practice across the UN system: UN 2.0 AI Expo
The UN 2.0 Data & Digital AI Expo showcased how UN entities are integrating AI into their work to improve data quality, strengthen governance and enhance decision-making across diverse operational areas.
Analysis
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.
Analysis
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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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.