Citizenwashing EU Tech Policy: EU Deliberative Mini-Publics on Virtual Worlds and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Over the last decade, the use of deliberative mini-publics as a democratic innovation to complement policymaking has flourished. The EU is no exception to this trend, holding large-scale transnational exercises such as the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) and the European Citizens’ Panels. Digital technology has emerged as a topic in this type of participatory exercise, conducted alongside prolific public policy activity by the EU institutions in this domain. In this article, we ask: How did post-CoFoE citizen panels on EU tech policy play out? We examine the 2023 European Citizens’ Panel on Virtual Worlds, organised by the European Commission, and the 2024 Citizen Panel on Artificial Intelligence organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Through participant observation and an interpretivist framework, we argue that while the panels were presented as giving voice to “everyday citizens” and improving democratic legitimacy in policymaking, in practice, they served to build support for current policy that replicates the interests of big tech. Consequently, the outcomes of the panels were largely in line with recent EU public policy on further investment into emerging digital technology and public-private partnerships. We suggest that deliberative mini-publics that seek to influence EU policymaking currently (a) constitute a form of citizenwashing by aligning participant input by design with dominant private, economic, and political interests and (b) demonstrate a strategic effort to institutionalise this form of exercise as a public engagement and legitimacy-building activity in EU-level policymaking.