About the Program
In the late 2010s digitalization was radically transforming our societies, creating new opportunities as well as regulatory challenges. There was a need to work towards a better understanding of these developments and define new global rules and standards that enabled us to jointly shape our digital futures.
The Challenge
Privacy protection and corporate regulation emerging at the time, was not only creating vast new opportunities – but also surfacing significant policy challenges. Despite sharing the vision of a free and open Internet, the governments of Germany and the US nevertheless differed in their approach to digital policy, with key divergences in areas such as data and privacy protection or corporate regulation. At the same time, digital authoritarianism was on the rise, with governments in China and Russia establishing their own concepts of “information security” by controlling information flows and leveraging the Internet as a tool for repression, manipulation and social polarization. These and other challenges made transatlantic cooperation all the more important and urgent if for protecting the future of the Internet as a global common good.
The Program
The Transatlantic Digital Debates (TDD) program aimed to support transatlantic political discussion and enhance cooperation. We brought together 18 young professionals - nine from the US and nine from Germany - from the public sector, civil society, business, media and academia who wanted to make a difference on these key challenges at the intersection of technology and policy.
Through workshops and conversations with leading decision-makers and experts from various sectors, the fellows engaged in open and provocative discussions on the best approaches to shaping our rapidly changing digital societies and economies.
Above all, the program sought to build trust among participants and establish a long-term network of individuals committed to shaping the future of digitalization. To this end, the project team aimed to create a strong alumni community and facilitate engagement not only within, but also between cohorts. The project team also supported individual fellows and small groups of fellows in writing op-eds and blog posts on the issues discussed. Their writing and podcasts were shared through social media and external news outlets.
The Transatlantic Digital Debates program conducted five successful rounds in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020, bringing together a total of 90 American and German fellows from a wide range of professional backgrounds.
Steering Committee
Members for the 2022 round included:
Benjamin Brake, Director General, Digital and Data Policy, German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport
Victoria Espinel, President and CEO, The Software Alliance
Stephanie Hankey, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Tactical Technology Collective
Stefan Heumann, Member of the Managing Board, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung
Andrew McLaughlin, Chairman of the Board, Access Now
Niklas Veltkamp, Managing Director, Digitalization and Innovation, Bitkom
Organizer and Funders
The Transatlantic Digital Debates were organized by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and New America’s Open Technology Institute in Washington, DC with guidance from a diverse steering committee of experts from a range of stakeholder groups. The program was generously supported by the Transatlantic Program of the German Federal Government, with funding from the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Additional support was provided by Microsoft.