Leaders TalkX: Local Voices, Global Echoes: Preserving Human Legacy, Linguistic Identity and Local Content in a Digital World

Local voices in the digital sphere: Preserving linguistic diversity and cultural heritage

During the Leaders Talk X session titled “Local Voices, Global Echoes: Preserving Human Legacy, Linguistic Identity, and Local Content in the Digital World,” a panel of esteemed guests discussed the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in creating an inclusive information society. Daniella Esi Darlington, the session chair, opened the dialogue by emphasising the need to leverage digital technology to preserve human legacies and empower local content creation.

UNESCO’s representative, Mr. Tawfik Jelassi, highlighted the linguistic divide, noting the stark contrast between the few dozen languages present online and the more than 7,000 spoken globally. He underscored UNESCO’s initiatives, including the World Atlas of Languages and the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages, aimed at preserving endangered languages. Mr. Jelassi also addressed the gender divide and online harassment, particularly against women and women journalists, stressing the amplification of gender biases through AI systems.

Guinea’s Minister for Telecommunications and Digital Economy, Her Excellency Miss Rose Pola Pricemou, spoke about the challenges Guinea faces as a consumer of foreign content and the country’s efforts to promote local languages and digitise cultural archives. She emphasised the importance of creating digital content that reflects regional and local culture to preserve history and cultural diversity.

The Gambian Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, His Excellency Mr. Ousman A. Bah, outlined the Gambian government’s commitment to archiving and preserving cultural and historical legacy through digital means. He mentioned the integration of local languages into the education sector and the promotion of digital literacy to encourage the creation of local content.

From Denmark, Miss Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, the tech ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, brought a personal perspective into the discussion. She stressed the importance of maintaining linguistic differences, which are closely tied to cultural identities, and the responsibility to ensure local voices are heard on the global stage. She argued that diversity and pluralism are vital for a well-functioning society and the digital future.

Prof. Alfredo Ronchi from the EC MEDICI framework cautioned against the risks of digital technology overshadowing human aspects of society. He warned of the potential for addiction to a meta life and the influence of AI on public perception, suggesting that local content might soon be generated by bots. Prof. Ronchi called for a focus on sustaining the human role and the right to freedom and personal privacy.

NK Goyal, President of the CMAI Association of India, presented a series of strategies for digital empowerment, including support for language preservation and the development of language technology solutions. He highlighted the Indian government’s software, Bhasini, which translates messages into multiple Indian dialects and languages, and suggested its potential for global application.

Finally, Ms. Dana Northcott, CEO of International Trademark, discussed INTA’s role in advocating for the universal acceptance of non-ASCII domain names to enhance access for non-English-speaking communities. She emphasised INTA’s commitment to meaningful multi-stakeholder involvement and the importance of preserving local content and the rights of creators and innovators.

The session concluded with a collective understanding that inclusivity and diversity are essential for a sustainable and equitable digital future, and a call for continued collaboration among stakeholders to achieve these goals.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
welcome to the Leaders Talk X. I’m thrilled to invite you all to this session entitled Local Voices, Global Echoes, Preserving Human Legacy, Linguistic Identity, and Local Content in the Digital World. In this session we will delve into the critical role of cultural and linguistic diversity in fostering a vibrant and inclusive information society. Our esteemed panelists will explore how we can leverage the digital world to preserve our human legacy, safeguard linguistic identities, and empower local content creation. To ensure a productive session, I kindly request that our panelists limit their intervention to each questions to three minutes. Additionally, any written interventions you wish to share should be sent directly to the WSIS Secretariat for publication in the WSIS Plus 20 Forum High-Level Event Outcome and Executive Brief. Now let’s embark on this stimulating discussion. First off, I’d like to invite the UN representative, Mr. Tawfik Jelassi, who is the Assistant Director General for Communication and Information at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, to provide a brief statement.

Tawfik Jelassi:
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I would like to say that quite often here we talk about the digital divide, sometimes about the information or knowledge divide. We also talk about the gender divide, but maybe we haven’t talked enough about the cultural divide, but also about the linguistic divide. We know that there are hardly a few dozens of languages present online, while the world has more than 7,000 languages in use. So clearly there is a huge linguistic divide that people cannot benefit from content on the Internet unless they understand the language in which that content is being disseminated. So this is something very important. Now the question is, what can we do about it? Let me here briefly mention two initiatives of UNESCO. First, UNESCO recently created the World Atlas of Languages, which is a repository listing the 7,000 languages in use, a number of which are in danger of extinction, and we need to preserve them. Second key initiative from a multilingualism and linguistic diversity point of view is UNESCO is in charge, with UNDISA, of delivering the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032. When it comes to the gender divide, we did a study recently which showed that what we see online is an alarming tendency of large language models producing gender biases through generative AI systems. I’m not saying only they mirror what happens in the physical world, they amplify online the gender biases that exist in the physical world. Also in terms of gender, online our study shows that 73% of women are subject to online harassment. And when it comes to women journalists, the data shows that not only 73% of them are subject to online harassment, but 20% of them end up being physically attacked. What starts online in the virtual world moves to the physical world, and this is of course very alarming. So I mentioned briefly the linguistic divide, I mentioned briefly the gender divide and the gendered online violence that is happening. Let me also mention another initiative of UNESCO, which is to organize next February at our headquarters in Paris, a global conference on language technologies. And of course, these languages and their associated technologies are very relevant for cyberspace. Some of the initiatives include creating keyboards in indigenous scripts with translation commons, also digitizing endangered manuscripts in Lombok with the Archipelago Manuscript Society in Indonesia, also producing open educational resources in indigenous languages in Senegal, in Malawi, in Ecuador. So I just wanted to give you a feel or a sense for some of the initiatives that we have taken. Of course, they are not sufficient, but if we want so and here, let me close by quoting Nelson Mandela, who said, if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. How can we do how can we touch people’s hearts? How can how can we be relevant? How can we be meaningful? Clearly, we have to address this linguistic divide, if you want to make the digital sphere a place for all people without any exclusion, and the place where diversity matters as a source of enrichment. Thank you.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you very much for your critical submission. It’s quite important that in this digital age, we involve, we make sure that local languages and local content are collected and created in order for us to all thrive in this space. Else, we miss out on the opportunities that is present to us, especially in the age of AI. So I will move on to Guinea, Her Excellency Miss Rose Polar Price Mu, who is the Minister for Telecommunications and Digital Economy. So, Madam Rose, how does your country Guinea plan to collaborate with local and international partners to develop multilingual tools and platforms that facilitate cultural and linguistic diversity? And what strategies are in place to encourage the participation of indigenous people in this process?

Rose Pola Pricemou:
Thank you. And thank you to receive me in this manner. I’m going to leave my speech in French. Sorry for that. Ladies and gentlemen, when we have, we talk about this inheritance linguistically. Let’s talk about my daughter, who’s four. When she is look at content, she looks for ladybug or others. This is very interesting. And when I ask her, she systematically turns to ladybug. While traditionally, this is not the case. We have Dogome Amazons, we have Sudboudika. If and for her, it is so remote, she can’t even think about it. So this is a challenge that we are faced with. We are consumers of foreign content. So it is a major challenge to really raise awareness. Today in Guinea, we have initiatives to regulate the content to protect our cultural heritage. We also need to protect our linguistic heritage. And we have an application in order to promote local languages and promote research in different languages. This is why we have carried out a number of measures. We digitized our archives to produce digitalized content based on our cultural values. Therefore, content production needs to reflect our regional and local culture. We tried to revamp our National Museum and others in order to organize physical visits, but also virtual visits. Since 2018, we set up an exchange point, an XP, allowing to better controlling local content linguistically and culturally. This helps organize our digital content. And this is what I’d like to remind all content producers and creators, we really need to promote local creators that can offer content based on our history based on our local culture. This will enable us to preserve our history and our culture as much as possible. And we cannot just present just one culture, because our wealth is our cultural diversity. This is what allows us to enrich each other and learn from each other. Thank you for your attention.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you very much, Madam Rose. Like you rightly said, we need to empower our local content creators to create content in the indigenous languages. And of course, it’s also laudable that your ministry is digitalizing these local content to make it easy for people to also leverage it for good. I would move on to Gambia, His Excellency Mr. Usman Bah, who is the Minister for Communications and Digital Economy.

Ousman A. Bah:
Thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me to this panel to see or view what we are doing in the Gambia. The digital era offers opportunities to archive and preserve our cultural and historical legacy. We must invest in a robust digital archiving system that ensure historical document tradition and artifacts are digitized and made accessible to future generations. Imagine technology like artificial intelligence can play a vital role in preserving human legacy and help in cataloging and restoring the manuscript. They are vital in creating multilingual websites and apps, allowing government services and information in multiple local languages. On preserving human legacy, the Gambia government is prioritizing the rollout of a local digital library to preserve legacy knowledge and ensure access for current and future generations. This ministry will provide support and put in place for requisite ICT infrastructure to help realize the objective. The ministry will work closely with the key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Information, National Record Office, the National Arts and Culture, and the National Museum to ensure digital vision of scholarly and other research are available through open platform as envisaged in an open data policy and strategy for the Gambia. The linguistic identity, the Gambia recognize the importance of preserving our linguistic identity and as such, there are ongoing strides to integrate our local languages into the education sector. As dedicated curriculum has been launched in the two major local languages, Mandinka and Wolof. We also continue to promote the integration of local languages in the digital space, especially on citizen centric services deployed by business, government and the donor community. Recognizing the importance of digital literacy, we must seek to implement programs to equip citizens and the necessary skill needed to create access, manage digital content and pushing for more local content. Inclusivity is essential in our key policy as we are currently championing the cause of exclusive, equitable, affordable and accessible, meaningful connectivity and digital platform for all regardless of their socioeconomic status. This is essential to preserving and promoting human legacy and linguistic identity. In the sector of education, ICT is a central pillar of the education policy 2016 to 2030 and the government has partners with donor organization to roll up our ICT education and provide the necessary ICT device to support learning across all levels. The local content development, we recognize the significance of local content development in especially in the digital era. The ongoing initiative for research development at home grown ICT products and services include establishing the tech hub and center of innovation across all regions of our potential game changing National Technology Park. On the policy front, the entrepreneurship of the of the Gambia and the ICT Agency Act 2019. advocated for local content and development and promotion for indigenous digital solutions. To archive this objective, we must believe in the essential to continue collaboration with our development partners to scale human capital, especially in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics known as STEM, to help realize this goal. To continue recognizing the importance of promoting the utilization of digital media as valuable vehicle to promote positive local content inspired to strive the inclusive sustainable development. Thank you.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you very much, Mr. Usmanu. We will move on to Denmark. Miss Anne-Marie Ekthoff, sorry if I mispronounced it, who is the tech ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In terms of what you’re doing in Denmark, why are local perspectives so crucial in shaping our digital futures? Is this even realistic that local voices can find their way to the global stage?

Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard:
Good afternoon, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here and thank you to my fellow panelists for the insights so far. I represent a country of 6 million people speaking a language that to most people sounds like nonsense. Moreover, I represent a kingdom with a very large island to the north, Greenland, less than 50,000 people, another language that to many of us will sound like something of a fairy tale. The same with the Faroe Islands. And I think when we look at the digital future, we can either go into a world where it’s all based in two, three languages. What I find is that my own native tongue, there’s something about the nuances, the way we express feelings, emotions, how we understand human dignity that I have a hard time expressing in English, even though my English is pretty good. Whenever I see a dog or a baby, I never speak to them in English. I immediately speak to them in Danish because the mother tongue of how we connect with one another, I think is the fundamental piece. And in a digital era where everything is ones and zeros, and we could all sort of end in a world where it’s just Esperanto, remember the language that was sort of created as a new world language, maintaining linguistic differences and recognizing and respecting that they are tied to cultural differences, to deep legacies and histories, and whether that language has been written or spoken, stories that we’ve been telling ourselves that is part of the identity of me as a Dane, Danish woman, and that many here think the way that we’ve been using our native tongues is absolutely critical to bear into the digital future, because if we don’t, we’re going to miss the opportunity of, first of all, making sure that we all have dignity, self-preservation, and fundamental human rights. The second is, in order for the digital future to reflect not only our collective past, but how we would like the future to be created, we have to draw on some of these cultural differences, and language is such a big part of that. That is why so many amazing translators work in this city. That is because we recognize the power of language. And so for us, this question, can these voices even find their way to the global stage? It is our duty, it is our responsibility to make sure that that is possible, because local voices, context, perspective, they assemble and they represent local need and aspirations, and they must be reflected when we shape the digital world. If we don’t, we’re never going to spot challenges, harms, missed opportunities. We already see now, when we don’t have enough content moderators in local languages, that is where harms are being done. And so the Internet, it does not only consist of diplomats in Geneva who all mainly speak the same languages, it’s made out of billions of people around the world, each shaping with their own story, in their own language, the digital future. And so with that, let me just end and say diversity pluralism is a cornerstone of a well-functioning society. It is good for business, it is good for democracies, and it is good for the digital future. Thank you.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you very much. Indeed, maintaining linguistic differences are tied to our cultural backgrounds, and it’s very important because we might lose our history and our self-preservation as human, and this discussion is very critical in this particular forum. I’d like to move on to Prof. Alfredo Ronchi, who is with the EC MEDICI framework, and who is the Secretary General of the institution.

Alfredo Ronchi:
So, on the 20th year WSIS anniversary, I would like to outline the relevance of the WSIS process and its action line as a key open forum where stakeholders can debate, share ideas, propose solutions. We are facing a significant turning point. It is not under question the added value and the achievements due to digital technology. We simply look at the digital world from the humanities side. Since the dawn of digital technology, computers overlapped more and more any activity reshaping society, impacting lifestyles. Social media global content providers are training young generations offering all over the world global homogenized content that will impact future generations and jeopardize cultural diversities. Since more than 22 decades, we are wrapped in our personal cyber sphere in a kind of symbiotic relation. We experience the world through the mediation of cyber devices. The new reality is the one provided by them. By leveraging our laziness and relaxation, citizens shop online, purchase food and drinks delivered on their tables, meet friends on Zoom, interact with the external environment through social media and video clips. The metaverse. One of the foreseen risks is a kind of addiction to this part of the life, training users to shift from real to meta life, blurring the border between them. Meta life may propose a new normal that once accepted in the meta life could be accepted in the real one. The same obviously applies to mainstream information and opinion dynamics. Social media have drastically changed the way opinion dynamics evolve. While AI will benefit citizens, businesses and public interests, it will create risks to fundamental rights due to potential biases, privacy infringement, as an example, AI proxy based solutions to serious ethical problems or dilemmas. Releasing citizens from a personal ethical analysis and related responsibilities would feed ML or AI systems mainly with big data from Western countries. This can lead to the disappearance of other intelligence. Businesses are increasingly using AI bots to carry out different activities ranging from writing a poem to creating deep fakes. How can we identify human products from machine products? Local content will be soon generated by local bots. The progress in AI allowed the development of much more powerful nudge mechanisms thanks to effectiveness in statistical and inferential AI systems. Public perception is shaped more by addressing predetermined feelings and opinions rather than facts. The challenge for the upcoming years are the ways to sustain the human’s role and the invaluable right to freedom and personal privacy.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you so much, Prof. Alfredo, for your intervention. For the sake of time, we will move on to Prof. NK Goyal, who is the President of the CMAI Association of India. Prof., with varied cultural languages around the globe, what do you suggest for digital empowerment?

NK Goyal:
Thank you very much. First of all, I thank my co-panellists. They have emphasised the need for this thing. So I want to brief and go ahead. And achieving local content, linguistic identity, and local content in digital world requires a concerned effort from various stakeholders and implementation of a strategy aimed for preserving, promoting, celebrating linguistics diversity. I want to suggest that the Indian government has made a software called Bhasini, in which at the same time, simultaneously, the messages, whether voice or video or SMS, are transferred into 79 Indian dialects and languages. The same can be made available to the world and agencies. And with the help of AI, it can be used for translating into 7,000 world languages. Now the way ahead are the suggestions I thought of eight points. Number one, support language preservation. Number two, develop language technology solutions. Number three, promote multilingualism in digital space. Next, create digital content in local languages. Next, facilitate access to digital tools and infrastructure. Next, collaborate with local communities. Next, raise awareness and digital literacy. Last one, leverage social media, online communications, NGOs, grassroot bodies, public-private partnerships, and corporations. And I want to finish by saying, within the time allotted to me, in the world, we develop technologies for easing out our life, or to make our life easy. But the proof of not achieving that is, in spite of all the best policies of the world, of all agencies, of all governments, we still have unconnected, not only in terms of connections, but language, culture, diversity. So what are we going to do? Is technology there to create more imbalances, or to balance? Thank you very much.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you very much, Perl. We will move on to our online guest, if she’s available. Okay, so we would invite Ms. Dana Northcott, who is the CEO of International Trademark, to provide her intervention. Ms. Dana, if you can hear me, in terms of the inter, we know it’s well known for representing the interest of brand owners, and it is dedicated to the protection of trademark, complementary intellectual property, to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation. It is also committed to building a sustainable future through brands. How does the protection of linguistic identity and local content fit into your organization’s mission?

Dana Northcott:
Thank you for the question, and thank you to my team and secretary, Doreen Brown-Martin. Let me add that I was just in Denmark on a delegation for intellectual property policy, and enjoyed the culture and inclusiveness, which my esteemed colleague from Denmark just described. I’m honored to participate on this panel, and in the WSIS Forum high-level event. These discussions are critical during a time of accelerated advances in technology, and the growing need to preserve local content, and the rights of creators and innovators. At the Intellectual Trademark Association, or INTA, we believe the key to continued development of open, sustainable, and inclusive digital spaces is the ongoing commitment to meaningful multi-stakeholder involvement at the local, national, and supernational levels. This includes transparent and open collaboration with all stakeholders to create balanced policies that improve everyday lives, especially for non-English-speaking and writing communities that have been so often left behind. INTA is well-positioned to provide the technical and policy expertise to advance the WIPO SDGs. INTA’s mission is complementary to SDGs in that it seeks sustainable answers to global challenges. I would like to talk to you specifically about SDG 9, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. One of the most important pieces of infrastructure is the Internet. ICANN is at the center of maintaining the world system of domain names and numbers, identifiers that enable the Internet as we currently know it. INTA has leaned into the efforts with ICANN to enhance the availability of domain names in local languages, not just English in the languages of wealthy nations. INTA advocates for universal acceptance of top-level domain names consisting of non-ASCII characters. ASCII has been the dominant character set on the Internet, which makes access exceedingly difficult for people who do not use the ASCII system in their native language. INTA participates in the ICANN multi-stakeholder model primarily through the efforts of the Intellectual Property Constituency, IPC, of which I happen to be a member. This is not a small effort on INTA’s part, nor one that is staffed as an afterthought. Indeed, INTA was one of the founding members of the IPC back in 1999, and has retained a leadership role throughout the IPC’s existence. In fact, the sitting president of the IPC is INTA’s Senior Director of Internet Policy. INTA has been able to leverage its influence to ensure that ICANN continues its focus on expanding access to non-ASCII languages within the domain system, often referred to as internationalized domain names, or IDNs. In this way, local voices and content are being heard, seen, and preserved. This is important work. Thank you.

Daniella Esi Darlington:
Thank you very much for your timely intervention. At this point, we will wrap up our discussions. Thank you so much to all our high-level panelists for their insightful submissions. And we would, I think we can take a photo, or are we done already? We’ll take another one, yes. Thank you.