New videos online: How digital public spaces can strengthen democracy
Experts from law, economics, philosophy, and the social sciences share their visions
Digital public spaces are playing an increasingly central role in democratic discourse. Yet, with the dominance of global social media platforms, core principles such as diversity of opinion, transparency, and participation are coming under growing pressure. Personalized content, algorithmic moderation, and the rapid spread of generative AI content raise the pressing question: Do these digital spaces still promote democratic exchange—or are they undermining it?
To explore this, the interdisciplinary research group humanet3 invited experts from law, economics, philosophy, and the social sciences to a workshop in March 2025. Together, they discussed the state of digital publics, their significance for democracy, and how they can be designed to be both future-ready and democratically sustainable.
A video series has emerged from this exchange, featuring selected participants who share their perspectives and offer impulses for the further development of digital spaces. They address the question: How do you envision a digital public space that benefits democracy?
In one of the current videos, Catalina Goanta, Associate Professor of Private Law and Technology at Utrecht University, discusses the importance of rule-of-law principles in digital spaces. In her analysis, recent developments have shown that expectations for responsible conduct by businesses and political actors have often been disappointed. She argues for restoring trust in public institutions — such as the judiciary and the legal system — as a basis for designing reliable and user-friendly digital spaces.
Gérman Oscar Johannsen, member of the humanet3 group and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, highlights the importance of technologies that enable social interaction and are oriented toward pluralism and trustworthiness. In his view, clear regulatory frameworks are needed to steer technological services toward democratic and public-interest-driven uses.
Clara Iglesias Keller, head of the research group "Technology, Power, and Domination" at the Weizenbaum Institute, emphasizes in her contribution that structural inequalities persist in digital environments. She stresses that a democratic digital public space can only exist if all people have access to digital infrastructure and diverse sources of information. Restrictions due to economic interests or a lack of technical resources represent key barriers in this regard.
The video series is part of an ongoing dialogue on the future of democratic publics in the digital age. Earlier videos featured contributions from Erik Tuchtfeld, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Kristina Rao, Thorsten Thiel, Raffaela Kunz, and Chaewon Yun. Further contributions from academia and practice will follow in the coming weeks.
humanet3 is an interdisciplinary research initiative that critically accompanies and actively shapes human-centered digital transformation — in line with the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The project is supported by three Max Planck Institutes: 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.
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