Philanthropy Must Jump-Start a Digital Revolution for the Common Good

[Commentary] Philanthropy cannot sit on the sidelines in the battle over net neutrality. Key public-policy decisions being made in the coming years will determine whether our digital public square is accessible for decades to come. And we must not condone a global society of unequal access and opportunity.

In a world where we talk to each other online, buy things online, find jobs online, and inform our communities online, we cannot have an approach that says if you have money, you have better access to the basic aspects of our daily lives. As grant makers, the concepts we must endorse are the digital progeny of a one-person, one-vote tradition, of freedom of expression as a right of all citizens. In the digital age, it’s essential that the principles that brought us here, of equal access to economic opportunity and civic life, be maintained and preserved. Let us look to the civil-rights movement, which smashed policies of separate but equal in our schools and public spaces a half century ago.

A group of foundations—Ford, MacArthur, Open Society, Knight, and Mozilla—have agreed on the core principles of a free and universal web. We will seek to collaborate on large projects to transform learning and education and will cultivate leaders in business, government, and civil society to join the cause of equality on the Internet. We will work on issues of data security and protection of individual privacy and ensure that our practices and data ethics are consistent with our beliefs. Many will rightly ask, given the histories of our philanthropies in supporting a robust digital society, what makes our new effort so significant? How can foundations joining forces help shape the future of the Internet?
First, this pledge marks a new starting point: a commitment to work together, rather than only individually, in support common principles. We believe philanthropy can and should lead if we are going to preserve Internet as a force for good.
Second, as foundations, we are in a good position to catalyze additional dollars and commitments from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Unconstrained by shareholder returns or legislative approval, philanthropy has long had a powerful ability to support bold, creative, even unorthodox solutions.
Third, through sitting at the intersection of inventors and technologists, grass-roots organizations and activists, experts and researchers, and business and policy leaders, we can create alliances and open spaces to share knowledge and generate ideas.

[Alberto Ibargüen is president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mark Surman is president of the Mozilla Foundation, and Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation.]