The Trust Shield: Building Democratic Resilience in the Digital Age

New efforts are converging across Europe and beyond to reinforce the resilience of democratic systems in an era of digital transformation. Within this evolving landscape, the forthcoming European Democracy Shield reflects a growing aspiration to ensure that democracy in the digital age is sustained not only through institutions and regulation but through the capacity to cultivate trust in an increasingly algorithmic world.

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Trust is the foundation of democratic life. It is what allows citizens to delegate authority, share knowledge, and participate confidently in public life. Yet in today’s digital age, the foundations of that trust are being tested. The rapid integration of artificial intelligence and big data into everyday decision-making, information systems, and governance is transforming how people form, lose, and rebuild trust.

The capacity to engage confidently with these systems, from evaluating information, exercising autonomy to maintaining fairness, has become essential for citizens and policymakers alike. Understanding how trust operates in this new context is crucial to ensuring that technological progress strengthens, rather than weakens, civic participation.

At the individual level, trust depends on people’s capacity to make informed decisions about whether and when to believe information that is perceived as being produced, mediated, or amplified by algorithmic systems. At the institutional level, it rests on transparency, accountability, and inclusive governance mechanisms that ensure AI systems serve the public good. And at the cultural level, trust is shaped by shared values, language diversity, and historical experiences that influence how communities perceive and adopt new technologies.

Finally, education and critical digital literacy cut across all these layers. They transform vulnerability into empowerment by equipping individuals and communities with the knowledge and skills to understand, question, and co-create the technologies shaping their lives. Together, these dimensions can form an ecosystem of trust — one that supports democratic resilience, aligns with the goals of the European Democracy Shield, and ensures that Europe’s digital transformation remains ethical, participatory, and culturally inclusive.

Why Attend?

The webinar is relevant to anyone involved in shaping or responding to digital policy in democratic societies. It will be of particular interest to local government officials, EU and national policymakers, civil society actors, researchers in the social sciences and humanities, software developers, and technologists interested in civic tech or human-centred design.

Agenda

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