Communication Rights in the Age of Digital Disruption (CORDI) is a research consortium funded by the Academy of Finland. It is based on collaboration between media and communication studies and legal scholarship at the universities of Tampere and Helsinki.

The research consortium looks at the digital disruption from the point of view of citizens’ communication rights, with an aim of developing a rights-based approach to communication conceptually and in terms of its practical, legal, and regulatory implications.

The “digital disruption” of media and society has fundamentally changed citizens’ opportunities to access information and participate in public debates and democracy. The role of digital platforms in the exploitation of personal data, spread of disinformation, and other “disorders” of the public sphere have raised fears about the future of democracy, free expression, and our fundamental rights to privacy, dignity, and non-discrimination.

The project clarifies conceptually the debate on communication rights, maps different actors’ understanding of the current situation, and produces concrete policy solutions and suggestions that can be implemented in legal and administrative regulation of the new digital media environment.

Title photo: Johannes Schwanbeck