Epistemic Rights in the Era of Digital Disruption

In today’s era of accelerating digital disruption, optimism about democratic dialogues, diversity, inclusion, and other such good things is hard to come by. As much as the recent global pandemic and geopolitical crises have demonstrated the fragility of the way we communicate and receive information, even without it, we would be weary, among other things, of biases created by algorithms and other possible dangers of generative artificial intelligence, digital divides created by economic or competence gaps, digital surveillance, and the continuing increase in online disinformation and hatred. In many ways, digitalisation may empower us to connect and communicate, but it is also increasingly impeding our fundamental rights. The starting point of this book is thus the claim of epistemic equality: in a functioning democracy, citizens should be equally capable of making informed choices about matters of societal importance. This claim includes the notion that citizens have equal access to all relevant information and knowledge necessary for informed will formation.