october 22-24, 2025
the attention forum
on the future of digital governance
It isn’t just a conference. It’s a call to reset and rebuild.
The internet was initially sold to us as a force for connection – a borderless, democratizing set of technologies that would amplify voices, allow us to spread ideas, and strengthen civil society.
And, for a time, it did just that.
But, as platforms grew more powerful and we failed to constrain them, the tools we built to bring us together began to pull us apart. Social media companies designed systems to maximize attention – not safety. Disinformation campaigns outpaced journalism. Algorithms rewarded outrage over truth. What was once a new frontier of opportunity became a playground for exploitation, manipulation, and harm.
For the past decade, democracies have tried to respond. Policymakers, researchers, and civil society organizations around the world have fought to understand the problem, to build safeguards, and to regulate tech giants. Across the EU, UK, Australia, and Canada, policymakers began to construct digital governance architectures to balance innovation with accountability. But, just as they were getting close, the ground shifted beneath us. And now, global digital regulation – and a decade of progress we should be proud of – is under threat.
Two seismic shifts have changed the game. The first is the explosive rise of generative AI, which is reshaping not just what needs to be governed, but how we govern. The second? A newly radicalised United States that, in this post-election landscape, is no longer just a reluctant partner, but has become an active obstacle to regulation. An emboldened alliance between U.S. government actors and tech companies is now working to dismantle hard-own policy advances abroad, resisting any effort that doesn’t serve or prioritize the interests of its domestic tech sector.
For democracies around the world, the implications are stark: if we don’t act now, our information ecosystems – and the democratic values they support – could be lost to an unregulated tech oligopoly, and an American government that supports it. This is no longer just about platforms, it’s about sovereignty. It’s about whether democracies can still govern in the digital age – or whether they’ll be governed by it.
This October, we invite you to tackle these issues at the inaugural Attention Forum on the Future of Digital Governance – a high-level international gathering of lawmakers, academics, civil society leaders, journalists, creatives, and technologists, who believe the world’s leading democracies can, and must, chart a new path forward.