Digital Watch Observatory - Digital Governance in 50+ issues, 500+ actors, 5+ processes
Global debates at the UN revealed growing urgency over how rapidly advancing digital technologies could either widen existing inequalities or reshape international cooperation in the years ahead.
Adopted at the UN General Assembly, the WSIS+20 outcome document makes the Internet Governance Forum permanent and reinforces commitments to close persistent digital divides.
Russia says BRICS is coordinating on AI while rejecting premature common standards.
Global leaders warned that rapid digital progress is masking more profound inequalities and new risks, raising urgent questions about who truly benefits from connectivity and emerging technologies in today’s digital world.
AI adoption is rising among younger Europeans, highlighting the growing role of intelligent technologies in daily life and work.
New OpenAI findings suggest advanced AI models may support faster and cheaper wet lab research by proposing novel experimental mechanisms validated through real laboratory testing.
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Analysis
E-commerce transformation through blockchain technology
Future online commerce will integrate blockchain alongside AI, IoT and advanced cryptography, forming ecosystems that rely on verifiable processes instead of platform authority.
Analysis
RightsX Summit 2025: Governing technology through human rights
Human rights are no longer abstract ideals but living principles shaping how AI, data, and digital governance influence everyday life, power structures, and the future of human dignity in an increasingly technological world.
Analysis
The fundamentals of AI
Understanding the fundamentals of AI explains how machines learn, adapt and perform tasks once considered uniquely human.
DW at a glance
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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.