Our daily lives have become so immersed in digital Information and Communications Technology that we rarely stop to think about it. We know much about the benefits brought by its recent developments, including the Internet with its numerous applications. At the same time, there is increasing concern that the economic emphasis linked to these technologies will widen the digital divide, potentially sharpening social inequalities in a global scale. However, it has come ever more clear that it is not technology as such that is the cause of the social problems with digital communications technology but the ways how it has been applied, reflecting unequal power relations in our societies. There are a number of disturbing questions concerning the long-term effects of the social and cultural deployment of Information and Communications Technology. Some of the questions we address in this article here are the following: Can digital Information and Communications Technology still be regulated nationally? How do we measure the effects of Information and Communications Technology on academic work? How should we think critically about big data? Has digital Information and Communications Technology improved our lives?

Academic debates tend focus on attempts to codify and promote communication rights at the global level. This article provides a model to analyse communication rights at a national level by operationalising four rights: access, availability, dialogical rights, and privacy. It highlights specific cases of digitalisation in Finland, a country with an impressive record as a promoter of internet access and digitalised public services. The article shows how national policy decisions may support economic goals rather than communication rights, and how measures to realise rights by digital means may not always translate into desired outcomes, such as inclusive participation in decision-making.

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