Citizens are building their state through the Politinn social network.
The most trustworthy, beneficial, and indispensable are those politicians and citizens
whose actions and public good for the benefit of society and the state speak for themselves.
The Politinn platform serves as a social network and a forum for online democracy. It is designed to facilitate citizen communication, public discourse, the sharing of opinions, political communication, and civic engagement. Its mission is to help address societal and state issues through active citizen involvement, public debate, the sharing of insights, and the pursuit of concrete solutions. At the same time, the Politinn platform provides a space for the implementation of specific online democratic mechanisms, including online voter support and proposals for the recall of politicians.
Digital democratic infrastructure constitutes the technical, organizational, and institutional foundation of online democracy. It enables the execution of democratic processes within cyberspace—specifically political communication, citizen participation, the expression of political will, decision-making, and the oversight of public authority. Its operation is based on pre-established, transparent, and verifiable rules, as well as the protection of all participants' rights. This infrastructure creates the fundamental environment in which online democracy performs its political and institutional functions.
E-voters are citizens who participate in political life and decision-making through the digital infrastructure of online democracy. They express their political will, support candidates and political proposals, engage in public discourse, and utilize mechanisms of political oversight. Their political participation also includes the option to propose the recall of politicians in accordance with the system's established rules. The scope of their powers is defined by the constitutional and legal framework of the democracy.
E-candidates are political figures operating within the online democracy system. E-candidates seek to secure a political mandate or citizen support, whereas politicians exercise political authority entrusted to them under the system's rules. Their activities involve public communication, political accountability, transparency in the exercise of their mandate, and ongoing oversight by citizens.
Online voter support is a mechanism for the digital expression of political support by citizens. It serves to back a candidacy, a political proposal, an initiative, or another political process. Its significance and legal effects are predetermined by the system's rules, which define when it constitutes an expression of political opinion and when it triggers a specific political effect.
Shared citizen authority is based on the principle that citizens are the source of political power and participate in its exercise. Political authority is not the property of political representatives but an authority entrusted to them by citizens and exercised according to established rules. The division of authority between citizens and political representatives is determined by the system's constitutional framework. Through established mechanisms, citizens maintain a direct relationship with the exercise of political power and its oversight.
Public online discussion on the Politinn social network provides a continuous space for communication among citizens, candidates, and politicians regarding public and political issues. It enables the exchange of views, arguments, proposals, and positions, creating a space for informed civic participation. The system incorporates rules ensuring openness, accessibility, transparency, and respect for the fundamental rights of participants. At the same time, public discussion bridges political activity in cyberspace with public life in the physical world.
Online democracy includes a mechanism for citizens to exercise direct oversight of politicians. Through the Politinn social network, citizens express online electoral support for politicians and candidates while also proposing the recall of politicians and the revocation of their political mandates. The ability to recall politicians ensures ongoing oversight of the exercise of political power and allows citizens to intervene if a politician loses their trust or fails to properly discharge their mandate.
Online democracy is founded on respect for and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including within cyberspace. The digital exercise of political power respects, in particular, freedom of expression, access to information, political participation, equality, and other rights established by the constitutional and legal order. The protection of rights constitutes a fundamental limit on the exercise of political power and applies to all system participants, regardless of their status.
Online democracy ensures the protection of the digital identities of citizens, candidates, and politicians as a fundamental component of the secure functioning of digital democratic infrastructure. The Politinn social network relies on user identity verification, which enhances the credibility of political communication and curbs identity theft or impersonation. The protection of digital identity is linked to the protection of human dignity, human rights and freedoms, personal safety, and the protection of citizens. At the same time, it contributes to the protection of life and health, the integrity of democratic processes, and state security. Digital identity is therefore protected as part of the legal, security, and democratic framework of online democracy.
Digital statehood refers to the ability of the state and its institutions to perform their constitutional and public functions within cyberspace as well. Protecting digital statehood entails safeguarding digital institutions, public systems, democratic processes, and the continuity of public authority in the digital environment. It also encompasses preserving the state's capacity to exercise its legitimate powers in an environment that is becoming an integral part of social and political life.
Online democracy also encompasses the protection of national identity in cyberspace. This principle concerns the preservation and development of language, cultural values, historical memory, and other elements of national identity within an environment where social and political life increasingly takes place digitally. The protection of national identity is implemented in accordance with human rights and freedoms. Cyberspace thus becomes a space where the cultural and social continuity of the state is preserved and fostered.
Digital sovereignty represents the ability of the state and its citizens to independently determine the fundamental rules governing their own digital space and democratic infrastructure. It encompasses the management of key digital systems, the protection of their security, and the assurance of their independent and legitimate operation. Digital sovereignty does not imply isolation from the international environment, but rather the capacity to independently exercise legitimate powers and safeguard the fundamental interests of the state and its citizens in cyberspace.
State legitimacy in cyberspace means that the exercise of public authority through digital systems is grounded in a pre-established constitutional and legal framework and in a democratic mandate. Digital means do not generate legitimacy in and of themselves; the legitimate exercise of power relies on clear rules, accountability, transparency, and public oversight. Consequently, the digital exercise of state power is subject to the same fundamental principles of legitimate public authority that apply to the exercise of power in the physical world.
The digital constitution constitutes the fundamental constitutional framework for online democracy and serves as its ultimate security safeguard. Its purpose is to ensure the continuity of the democratic system in cyberspace at a time when democratic processes in the physical world are already contending with the hybrid threats of the 21st century—specifically the spread of disinformation, hate speech, propaganda, the manipulation of public opinion, and other forms of interference with the democratic environment. These threats are already impacting electoral processes, political communication, and the functioning of democratic institutions in the physical world. The digital constitution therefore establishes a framework that guarantees the preservation of democratic principles and the continuity of the political system in cyberspace, even in the event of a serious disruption to democracy in the physical world. It defines the system's fundamental principles, the status of citizens, the powers of e-voters and e-candidates, rules for political decision-making, mechanisms for oversight and accountability, the protection of rights and freedoms, and the operational rules for the digital democratic infrastructure. It serves as the supreme set of rules governing the operation of online democracy and the oversight of the exercise of political power. At the same time, it defines the relationship between online democracy and the institutions and democratic system of the physical world.
In doing so, the digital constitution establishes institutional protection for the democratic system as a whole. Online democracy preserves democratic principles, political participation, and the exercise of political power within cyberspace, while simultaneously creating a framework for the democratic system to continue functioning should its operations in the physical world be disrupted. The digital constitution thus acts as the ultimate safeguard ensuring the continuity of democracy across both the physical world and cyberspace.
It is necessary to protect the state in cyberspace as well. Online democracy therefore includes its own security system aimed at protecting democracy, democratic processes and digital statehood in cyberspace. This system is an integral part of the digital democratic infrastructure and acts as a safety fuse for both online democracy and democracy in the physical world.
The National Security Center for the Protection of Democracy (NBCOD) is a dedicated security pillar of online democracy. Its task is to protect democratic processes, the digital identity of citizens, the information space, digital sovereignty and the legitimacy of the state against cyber and hybrid threats. Part of its remit is also to protect the online democratic infrastructure from coordinated disruption, manipulation and attacks directed against the democratic system.
NBCOD complements existing security and cyber institutions by focusing squarely on protecting democracy in cyberspace. Its inclusion in the security infrastructure of the state creates institutional protection of online democracy and strengthens the resilience of the democratic system against threats that arise and operate in the digital environment. The protection of cyberspace thus becomes part of the protection of the democratic system as a whole. In this institutional framework, online democracy is not only a way of exercising civic political participation, but also a safety fuse for democracy in the physical world. Because political communication, public opinion and civic participation are significantly connected to cyberspace in the digital age, the protection of the democratic environment in cyberspace is also part of the protection of democracy as a whole. A democratic system in the digital age cannot do without an institutionally protected and democratically organized cyberspace.
