ABSTRACT

Since the 1980s, the digital revolution has been both a negative and positive force. Within a few weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak, lockdown accelerated the adoption of digital solutions at an unprecedented pace, creating unforeseen opportunities for scaling up alternative approaches to social and economic life. But it also brought digital risks and threats that placed new demands on policymakers. This article assembles evidence from different areas of social science expertise about the impacts of Covid-19 in digitised societies and policy responses. The authors show how the pandemic supported changes in data collection techniques and dissemination practices for official statistics, and how seemingly insuperable obstacles to the implementation of e-health treatments were largely overcome. They demonstrate how the ethics of artificial intelligence became a primary concern for government legislation at national and international levels, and how the features enabling smart cities to act as drivers of productivity did not necessarily give them an advantage during the pandemic. At the micro-level, families are shown to have become ‘digital by default’, as children were exposed to online risks and opportunities. Globally, the spread of the pandemic provided a fertile ground for cybercrime, while digital disinformation and influencing risked becoming normalised and domesticated.

摘要

自1980年代以来，数字革命既是消极力量，也是积极力量。在Covid-19疫情爆发后的几周内，封锁以前所未有的速度加快了数字解决方案的采用，为扩大替代性方法用于社会和经济生活创造了无法预料的机会。但这也带来了数字风险和威胁，对决策者提出了新的要求。本文收集了来自社会科学专业领域不同领域的证据，以证明Covid-19在数字化社会和政策对策中的影响。这组作者展示了这种大流行如何支持官方统计数据收集技术和传播实践的变化，以及如何在很大程度上克服了实施电子卫生治疗的看似不可克服的障碍。他们展示了人工智能的伦理学如何成为国家和国际各级政府立法的主要关注点，以及使智慧城市能够充当生产力驱动因素的功能并不一定在大流行期间给他们带来好处。在微观层面上，由于儿童暴露于在线风险和机会中，家庭被证明是“默认的数字化”。在全球范围内，大流行的蔓延为网络犯罪提供了肥沃的土壤，而数字化的虚假信息和影响力有可能被规范化和驯化。由于孩子们面临着在线风险和机会，家庭被证明已成为“默认的数字化”家庭。在全球范围内，大流行的蔓延为网络犯罪提供了肥沃的土壤，而数字化的虚假信息和影响力有可能被规范化和驯化。由于孩子们面临着在线风险和机会，家庭被证明已成为“默认的数字化”家庭。在全球范围内，大流行的蔓延为网络犯罪提供了肥沃的土壤，而数字化的虚假信息和影响力有可能被规范化和驯化。