Pro/Contra: Does Digitisation make our lives freer?

Digitisation has opened up a world of opportunity that was inconceivable until a few decades ago. Freedom of expression is no longer limited to the privileged - your opinion matters, and you have any number of online spaces to express it. At the same time, digitisation can pose a serious threat to freedom as evidenced by increase in online violence and abuse, cyberbullying and stalking, surveillance of internet activity, and spread of fake news and hate speech. Two Indians and two Germans share their differing perspectives on whether digitisation is aiding freedom or hindering it.

Perspectives from India

Nikhil Pahwa is an Indian journalist, digital rights activist, and founder of MediaNama, a mobile and digital news portal.

Vrinda Bhandari is an independent legal practitioner and columnist who works on a variety of digital rights and privacy issues.

Perspectives from Germany

“The smartphone is a remote control for our digital lives,” says Helge Denker, a Berlin-based tech journalist.

The second panellist is Daniela Zimmer, a self-employed consultant for intercultural business training, who speaks for those who cannot afford a smartphone and feels digitisation poses serious challenges to freedom as we know it.