Rethinking Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Statement by Francesca Bria

Public spaces are important for democracy as they allow us to speak, build relationships, and exchange opinions. But the rise of global social media platforms has led to digital public spaces which are highly personalized, algorithmically moderated, and increasingly influenced by generative AI content. Do these technologies foster discourse, or do they just create noise that distracts?

In March 2025, the humanet3 group invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and social sciences to discuss the state of digital public spaces, how they relate to democracy, and how they should be shaped for the future.
We asked selected participants the same question: How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?

In this video, Francesca Bria , innovation economist and digital policy expert, shares her insights. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Stiftung Mercator in Berlin, where she leads the EuroStack Initiative on Europe’s Digital Sovereignty.

About humanet3
humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research group which analyzes, deconstructs, and contributes to initiatives aiming at a human-centered digital transformation, as proposed by the European Commission in its European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The humanet3 project has been established as a joint research group by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

More information:
More about Francesca Bria: https://www.francescabria.com/
humanet3: https://humanet3.mpg.de/
Workshop “Re-imagining Digital Public Spaces for Democracy – Interrelations and Forces”: https://humanet3.mpg.de/our-work/work...