This policy brief focuses on short-term action (2026-2028) around AI governance and provides practical guidelines for experts and policymakers. It introduces a framework that embeds democratic pillars — participation, freedom, equality, transparency, knowledge, and the rule of law — directly into the entire AI lifecycle.

Companies have significant influence over public discourse in online platforms, necessitating that the algorithms that shape these online platforms should be regulated and constrained to sufficiently consider the public interest (Susskind, 2018: 350).

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of how AI, big data and frontier technologies impact rights from the data protection perspective.

The Recommendation Algorithms explainer aims to demonstrate how algorithms work on social media platforms. It allows the users to simulate their experience on a social media platform, where their choices shape a personalised feed.

2.1    Equality

Equality is by-and-large considered both a positive aspect of democracy, and a necessary feature for democracy.

There are both instrumental and intrinsic reasons to value democracy. In short, democracy is valuable instrumentally because