On 6 and 7 June 2024, PublicSpaces and Waag Futurelab organised the fourth edition of the PublicSpaces conference with the theme 'Taking Back the Internet'. Through panels, keynotes, roundtable sessions, lectures, art and culture, we worked towards an internet where we set the rules collectively.
In 2024, most digital services and platforms are owned by a few Big Tech companies. This centralisation of power does not align with how the internet was conceived. It creates society-disrupting problems. From privacy violations and influencing election results to discrimination by biased algorithms, Big Tech's monopoly affects everyone. How do we - as citizens, organisations and governments - regain control of our data and our digital lives? If we want to be able to decide for ourselves what our digital ecosystem looks like, we need to be able to make independent decisions about the design, use and management of digital tools and platforms. During the conference, speakers, visitors and artists joined the conversation on data ownership, privacy, interoperability, decentralisation and more. In short: technology based on public values.
