From Information Integrity to Epistemic Centralization: Stigmatized Knowledge, Suppressed Discourses, and the United Nations' Global Digital Compact
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65655/openchristianpress.139Keywords:
Global Digital Compact, Pact for the Future, stigmatized knowledge, information integrity, epistemic centralization, digital governance, surveillance capitalism, digital identity, platform governance, Christian ethics, technocracyAbstract
This article examines the United Nations' Pact for the Future and its annexed Global Digital Compact as an emerging architecture of digital metagovernance with significant implications for stigmatized knowledge, suppressed discourse, and epistemic freedom. Rather than equating global digital coordination with a fully fledged world government, the article distinguishes globalization, harmonization, interoperability, centralization, and epistemic authority. Using a critical documentary analysis of major UN-system, regulatory, and policy texts from 2003 to 2026, supported by PRISMA-informed corpus documentation and Scripture-first normative reflection, the study argues that the most defensible diagnosis is networked centralization: a layered system of agenda-setting, soft-law standardization, infrastructural dependency, platform governance, AI coordination, and shared categories of legitimate digital knowledge. The analysis shows how concepts such as information integrity, trust, safety, resilience, harmful content, misinformation, disinformation, and authoritative sources may address real digital harms while also creating conditions for epistemic overreach, viewpoint policing, function creep, and the suppression of inconvenient or nonconforming claims. Bringing global-governance theory, governmentality, surveillance capitalism, agenda-setting and framing theory, scholarship on stigmatized knowledge, and Christian theological ethics into conversation, the article contends that digital governance must be judged not only by efficiency, inclusion, and safety, but also by its treatment of truth, conscience, dissent, human dignity, due process, national sovereignty, and the legitimate diversity of peoples before God. The article concludes by proposing safeguards for rights-constrained coordination, including viewpoint-neutral due process, independent oversight, auditability, anti-function-creep protections,
References
Atlantic Council. (2026). Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker/
Barkun, M. (2013). A culture of conspiracy: Apocalyptic visions in contemporary America (2nd ed.). University of California Press. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276826/a-culture-of-conspiracy
Barkun, M. (2016). Conspiracy theories as stigmatized knowledge. Diogenes, 62(3-4), 114-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0392192116669288
Beduschi, A. (2019). Digital identity: Contemporary challenges for data protection, privacy and non-discrimination rights. Big Data & Society, 6(2), 2053951719855091. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951719855091
Beduschi, A. (2021). Rethinking digital identity for post-COVID-19 societies: Data privacy and human rights considerations. Data & Policy, 3, e15. https://doi.org/10.1017/dap.2021.15
Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017). The psychology of conspiracy theories. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(6), 538-542. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417718261
Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi, F. (2019). Understanding conspiracy theories. Political Psychology, 40(S1), 3-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12568
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01304.x
European Union. (2022). Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj/eng
European Union. (2024a). Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as regards establishing the European Digital Identity Framework. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1183/oj/eng
European Union. (2024b). Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media. Yale University Press. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300261431/custodians-of-the-internet/
Gorwa, R. (2019). What is platform governance? Information, Communication & Society, 22(6), 854-871. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1573914
High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation. (2019). The age of digital interdependence. United Nations. https://www.un.org/techenvoy/sites/www.un.org.techenvoy/files/hlp_on_digital_cooperation_report_final.pdf
Illes, A., Kosse, A., & Wierts, P. (2025). Advancing in tandem: Results of the 2024 BIS survey on central bank digital currencies and crypto. Bank for International Settlements. https://www.bis.org/publ/bppdf/bispap159.htm
International Telecommunication Union. (2003). Geneva Declaration of Principles: Building the Information Society, a global challenge in the new millennium. https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html
International Telecommunication Union. (2005). Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html
International Telecommunication Union. (2025). Measuring digital development: Facts and Figures 2025. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/facts/default.aspx/
Lemke, T. (2011). Foucault, governmentality, and critique. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Foucault-Governmentality-and-Critique/Lemke/p/book/9781594516382
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1086/267990
UNESCO. (2021). Recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence. https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/recommendation-ethics-artificial-intelligence
UNESCO. (2023). Guidelines for the governance of digital platforms: Safeguarding freedom of expression and access to information through a multi-stakeholder approach. https://www.unesco.org/en/internet-trust/guidelines
United Nations. (2020). Road map for digital cooperation: Implementation of the recommendations of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation. https://www.un.org/en/content/digital-cooperation-roadmap/assets/pdf/Roadmap_for_Digital_Cooperation_EN.pdf
United Nations. (2021). Our Common Agenda: Report of the Secretary-General (A/75/982). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3939309
United Nations. (2023a). Our Common Agenda policy brief 5: A Global Digital Compact. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4011891
United Nations. (2024a). United Nations Global Principles for Information Integrity. https://www.un.org/en/information-integrity/global-principles
United Nations Development Programme. (2023). Governing digital legal ID systems effectively to ensure inclusion and respect for human rights. https://www.undp.org/digital/blog/governing-digital-legal-id-systems-effectively-ensure-inclusion-and-respect-human-rights
United Nations General Assembly. (2015a). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3923923
United Nations General Assembly. (2015b). Outcome document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (A/RES/70/125). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/819076
United Nations General Assembly. (2024a). The Pact for the Future (A/RES/79/1). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4061879
United Nations General Assembly. (2024b). United Nations Convention against Cybercrime; Strengthening International Cooperation for Combating Certain Crimes Committed by Means of Information and Communications Technology Systems and for the Sharing of Evidence in Electronic Form of Serious Crimes (A/RES/79/243). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4071955
United Nations General Assembly. (2025). Terms of reference and modalities for the establishment and functioning of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence and the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance (A/RES/79/325). https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4087699
United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. (2025). About the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies. https://www.un.org/digital-emerging-technologies/content/about
United Nations Statistics Division. (n.d.). UN Legal Identity Agenda. https://unstats.un.org/legal-identity-agenda/
United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination. (2024). United Nations system white paper on AI governance: An analysis of the UN system's institutional models, functions, and existing international normative frameworks applicable to AI governance. https://unsceb.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/United%20Nations%20System%20White%20Paper%20on%20AI%20Governance.pdf
van Prooijen, J.-W., & Douglas, K. M. (2017). Conspiracy theories as part of history: The role of societal crisis situations. Memory Studies, 10(3), 323-333. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698017701615
Ward, C., & Voas, D. (2011). The emergence of conspirituality. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 26(1), 103-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2011.539846
World Bank. (2025). Identification for Development (ID4D) global dataset. https://id4d.worldbank.org/global-dataset
Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. PublicAffairs. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395700/
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Sixbert Sangwa (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
