Linke on digital affairs

The Left wants to create good conditions for startups and digital companies and to give special support to artificial intelligence applications. The discontinued funding for small businesses' digitalization projects should return, and alternative brokerage platforms owned by their workers should be built.

The Left wants to support young digital companies in Berlin. Artificial intelligence should also get funding. Small businesses should again get money for digital projects. Drivers should be able to build their own platforms. These are online services that pass on jobs.

AI funding should focus on practical use and on cooperation with Berlin companies. University spin-offs should continue to receive support, as should open-source projects and platform cooperatives. According to the platform, the former Digitalprämie (digital bonus) reached almost 900 companies with 37 million euros, mostly solo self-employed people and small firms. The Left wants to examine a moratorium on new data centers because they tie up a lot of grid capacity and create few jobs. Open-source providers and startups should play a larger role in digitalizing the administration. Businesses and public authorities should be able to process payments through free European online services as an alternative to US providers.

The Left regards digital participation as a basic right and part of public services. Services in administration, education, culture and social support are to remain available both online and in person. Places that help people get into the digital world are to receive lasting funding.

Everyone should be able to use the internet. No one should be left out for lack of money, devices or knowledge. Public offices should be reachable online and in person. Poor children and poor older people should get special help.

Libraries, neighborhood centers, adult education centers and initiatives that provide devices, internet access and courses are to get long-term funding and better equipment. Public services are to have clear contact persons and accessible solutions. Children and young people from poor families and people with low pensions are to get targeted support. The program names devices, stable internet connections, places to learn and personal help.

The Left wants to protect digital spaces for young people and relies on building skills rather than strict bans. Every district would have a well-equipped media literacy center. In the party's view, it is the platforms that should be controlled, not children and teenagers.

The Left does not want to ban social media for young people. Young people should learn to handle digital media well. Every district should have a center for this. The party wants to control the platforms, not the children.

The plan includes free programs with educational guidance and regular training for professionals. This is meant to let young people, parents and professionals use digital media critically and confidently. The platform says young people on social media are often exposed to commercial interests. They would get help to see through marketing strategies, for example in online shopping or food.

The Left wants digital government to be built around protecting personal data and to become less dependent on individual tech corporations. Government websites should do without non-essential tracking, and the state data protection commissioner should get more powers.

The Left wants to protect people's data better. Government websites should not track what users do. Berlin should not depend on a few big tech companies. The data protection commissioner should be able to check and give orders.

The program criticizes that core processes of Berlin's administration depend on systems from outside vendors. It rejects privatizing citizens' data and opaque systems at the core of state infrastructure. It calls digital civil liberties non-negotiable; with state spyware and remote searches of devices, it sees a conflict with IT security when vulnerabilities are deliberately left open. The data protection commissioner should get access to system architectures, documentation and contracts with IT service providers. In the specialized departments, data stewards would document data flows and act as a link between the department, the state-owned IT provider ITDZ and the oversight authority.

The Left wants Berlin's government IT to be modular, openly documented and based on open source. Software built with public money should be available as open source code. According to the platform, this is meant to reduce dependence on individual vendors.

The Left wants to rebuild the computer systems of Berlin's public offices. Software should be open. That means everyone can see and reuse the code. Berlin should buy software together with other German states. This should make Berlin less dependent on single companies.

Products of the state-owned IT provider ITDZ, such as the BerlinPC, are to get replaceable components and documented interfaces, along with mandatory quality management. The list describing the IT architecture is to be made public. Software purchasing is to be coordinated with other states to strengthen bargaining power and avoid isolated solutions. The number of incompatible specialized applications is to be cut, and more Linux system administrators are to be trained. Under the principle of “Public Money, Public Code,” software developed on behalf of the state should be open and reusable.

The Left wants to expand open wireless networks and free public Wi-Fi in Berlin and secure them for the long term. The party regards digital infrastructure as an essential public service that should not be left to commercial providers.

The Left wants more open wireless networks in Berlin. The city's free Wi-Fi should get better and stay. The party says internet technology is a basic public service. Companies should not run it alone.

The LoRaWAN radio network is to grow as open infrastructure, and the Freifunk community network initiative is to receive support across the state. Free Wifi Berlin is to be upgraded technically and secured permanently. The digitalization of the power grid and its control systems is to be transparent and controllable. For crises, the platform relies on decentralized communication and wants to develop the Kiezbox further.

The Left wants public services to remain accessible without digital tools. Digital government services should be accessible and reliable, and more easy-to-use internet access points should be created in public spaces.

No one should have to use the internet to reach a public office. There should still be ways without a computer. Government websites should work well for everyone. Libraries should help people with this. There should be more places with free Wi-Fi.

As examples of unacceptable pressure, the platform cites appointments that can only be booked online and paper applications that take far more effort. Government services should be technically accessible, for instance with clear forms, plain language and versions for screen readers. Neighborhood canteens (Kiezkantinen) with free Wi-Fi are meant to allow participation regardless of what equipment people own. Libraries are to serve as places for learning and advice, and mobile citizens' offices are to offer services locally.

The Left wants to require large platforms such as Airbnb, Booking or Freenow to provide data access and transparency. In addition, a 20 million euro fund is to support public-interest platform projects, and the taxi trade is to become part of public transit.

The Left wants stricter rules for big online platforms like Airbnb. These companies should show the city their data. Berlin should give 20 million euros to other platforms. These should serve the public good. Taxis should become part of public transit.

The platform argues that these providers' business models strongly affect the housing market and mobility, while their data and algorithms are barely visible to public authorities. Interfaces, servers and access rights in a smart city are to be documented along the lines of the Mobility Data Specification and subject to political oversight. Integrating taxis into public transit is meant to bring uniform standards, fair competition and social protection. A Public Interest Innovation Fund is to support open platform architectures. The Left also wants the state to provide a free Mastodon instance for agencies, organizations and associations.

The Left wants to measure and reduce the energy and resource use of digital technology. Ecological standards such as the Blue Angel label for software and data centers are to be mandatory in government purchasing, and repair services are to receive funding.

Computers and data centers use a lot of electricity. The Left wants to measure this use and make it public. The government should consider the environment when it buys technology. Devices should last longer. So the Left wants to fund repair shops and repair cafés.

The energy use of software and data centers is to be documented systematically, including location, cooling and energy source. When IT services are contracted, energy efficiency, lifespan and maintainability are to count, as are repairability, spare parts and modular design. The platform points to the electronic waste created by regular hardware replacement in government offices. IT repair shops and repair cafés are to receive project funding for space, tools, supplies and networking. An adjusted repair bonus and regulated sharing services are also planned.

The Left wants AI in government to be used only in transparent, controllable and labeled ways. It rejects AI for remote biometric identification and for expanding state surveillance, as well as state cyber counterattacks.

The Left wants clear rules for artificial intelligence, or AI. People should be able to tell when a text comes from AI. The state should not use AI to watch people. For example, it should not recognize faces from a distance. In public offices, people should always be able to talk to a real person.

The risk assessment in the European AI Act is to be applied consistently. The Left wants to keep developing public AI tools only where they are measurably better than rule-based software, while taking energy use into account. Where there is a benefit to the public, state-run and state-trained models are to be supported to reduce dependence on large corporations. For government services, people are to have a right to advice from a human being. IT security is to protect critical infrastructure under the NIS 2 Directive and remain purely defensive; the party rejects so-called hackbacks, meaning state counterattacks online.

The Left wants to digitalize the Berlin administration's internal processes and its services for residents more quickly. According to the platform, this would ease the workload of staff and reduce the effort required of residents.

The Left wants Berlin's offices to go digital faster. People should be able to do more online. This should save work. The 15 most-booked services come first.

The standardized BerlinPC would become the norm for all employees. The party wants to reorganize IT project management and relies on open standards and the once-only principle, under which data has to be submitted only once. The service portal and service app would be modernized, and berlin.de would become the central, accessible, multilingual platform under municipal control. Digital services would also be open to EU citizens without a German ID card, and the EUDI wallet would be put to use. The party also wants to streamline procedures, for example by reforming the rules on public grants, and to become independent of non-European IT corporations.

The Left wants to prevent AI systems from perpetuating or worsening discrimination. Anyone affected by an automated decision should be able to have it reviewed by a human and to object to it.

Computer programs with artificial intelligence sometimes make decisions about people. The Left wants to make sure nobody is treated unfairly. People should be able to ask for a human to check the decision. They should also be able to object.

The program names the job market, the housing market and public administration as the main areas where AI must not reinforce unequal treatment. Affected people are to have a claim to an explanation, a human review and an objection. To that end, the party advocates regulation guided by human rights and democratic oversight of the technology.

The Left wants to strengthen Berlin's Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. She is to be able to issue binding orders to public authorities and enforce them. She is also to receive more funding.

The Left wants to strengthen Berlin's data protection commissioner. She should be able to give orders to public offices. The offices then have to follow them. She should also get more money.

Data protection and its oversight are to carry more weight inside public authorities so that violations are avoided early. Because of unauthorized data queries, especially by the police, the party wants to review which data administrative databases need to store and who may access them. The commissioner's rights are also to grow with regard to state-owned companies and companies in which the state holds a stake. The Left opposes concentrating data protection oversight at the federal level, arguing this would weaken the state commissioners.