WebRoots Democracy was a London-based think tank focused on progressive and inclusive technology policy. It was founded in May 2014 and closed in November 2020.

Research and publications

WebRoots Democracy has five main areas of focus: online voting; e-petitions; voter advice applications; social media regulation; and monitoring the recommendations of the Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy. It has an Advisory Council consisting of experts from across the technology industry, academia, civil society, and politics which provides ideas and guidance over the research it undertakes. Published in March 2015, ''Viral Voting: Future-proofing UK elections with an #onlinevoting option'' examined the benefits of online voting, the challenges faced for its implementation, and its estimated impact on voter turnout and elections. The report estimated that online voting could boost voter turnout by up to 9 million, reduce the cost-per-vote by a third, and enable voters with vision impairments to cast a secret ballot. It contains forewords by the MPs Graham Allen and

Chloe Smith Chloe Rebecca Smith (born 17 May 1982) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from September to October 2022. She previously served as Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health from 2021 to ...

, as well as the General Secretary of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

Frances O'Grady Frances Lorraine Maria O'Grady, Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (born 9 November 1959) became the General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 2013, the first woman to hold the position. After O'Grady presented her resignat ...

. ''Viral Voting'' was cited in a House of Commons debate on the EU Referendum Bill by Labour MP,

John McDonnell John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...

. It is also cited in a

Salford University , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

research paper on trade union strike ballots. In January 2016, ''Secure Voting: A guide to secure #onlinevoting in elections'' was published. This report focused on the key security challenges for the implementation of online voting and methods to overcome them. The report called for online voting to be introduced by the 2020 UK General Election. It contained forewords from MPs across the political spectrum:

, Graham Allen,

Tom Brake Thomas Anthony Brake (born 6 May 1962) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carshalton and Wallington in London from 1997 to 2019. He was appointed Director of the cross party pressure group Unlock ...

, and

Hannah Bardell Hannah Mary Bardell (born 1 June 1983) is a Scottish politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Livingston since 2015. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she served as its spokesperson for Digital, Culture, Media ...

. In addition, it contains a foreword by the Speaker of the House of Commons,

John Bercow John Simon Bercow (; born 19 January 1963) is a British former politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. A member of the Conservative Party prior to ...

. ''Secure Voting'' was cited widely during the parliamentary debates on the 2016 Trade Union Bill. It was also cited in a debate in the State Assembly of Jersey and in a feasibility study on internet voting by the Electoral Commission of Moldova. To coincide with the two year anniversary of the Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy, in January 2017, ''Democracy 2.0: Hitting refresh on the Digital Democracy Commission'' was published. It sets out a number of recommendations including the creation of a Government 'Digital Democracy Czar' and the introduction of mandatory political education in schools to help tackle challenges such as 'fake news'. It contains forewords by Emma Mulqueeny OBE and Cat Smith MP.

Opinion polls

WebRoots Democracy has commissioned three

YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and sinc ...

polls related to online voting. The first two found majority support for online voting to be implemented as an option in the

2016 London Mayoral Election The 2016 London mayoral election was held on 5 May 2016 to elect the Mayor of London, on the same day as the London Assembly election. It was the fifth election to the position of mayor, which was created in 2000 after a referendum in Greate ...

and the

2016 EU Referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

. The two leading candidates for London Mayor,

Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...

and

Zac Goldsmith Frank Zacharias Robin Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith of Richmond Park, (born 20 January 1975) is a British politician, life peer and journalist serving as Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment si ...

, subsequently backed the campaign for online voting. Sadiq Khan had previously written about his support for online voting in a blogpost on the WebRoots Democracy website saying it was "time to drag our democracy into the 21st century." The third poll was related to the 2016 EU Referendum. This poll found that there would have been an extra 1.2 million young voters had there been an option to vote online in the referendum.

Advisory Council

The think tank has a 20 member Advisory Council consisting of experts from across the tech industry and civil society. Members include the television broadcasters

Rick Edwards Richard Philip "Rick" Edwards (born 20 May 1979) is an English television presenter, journalist, and author. Edwards presented T4 for four years, and has also presented '' Tool Academy'', ''Freshly Squeezed'', ''E4 Music'', and much of Channe ...

and

Amy Lamé Amy Lamé (née Caddle; born 3 January 1971) is an American-British performer, writer, and TV and radio presenter, known for her one-woman shows, her performance group Duckie, and LGBT-themed media works. She was appointed by the Mayor of Lond ...

, technologists

Emma Mulqueeny Emma Elizabeth Mulqueeny (Given name, née Knight; born 12 July 1971) is a British technologist and educator. She is best known for co-founding Rewired State and Young Rewired State, which provided a community and events for technically gifted ...

and

Helen Milner Helen V. Milner (born 1958) is an American political scientist and the B. C. Forbes Professor of Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, where she is also the Director of the Niehau ...

, and the academics Dr Peter Kerr and Professor Mark Ryan.

Political Ambassadors

WebRoots Democracy has a group of cross-party 'Political Ambassadors' to champion the think-tank's digital democracy cause. They are: * Matt Warman MP (

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

) * Darren Jones MP (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

) * Hannah Bardell MP ( SNP) * Tom Brake MP ( Liberal Democrats) * Caroline Lucas MP (

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

) * Liz Saville Roberts MP (

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

) * Lord Jim Knight (

) * Lord Lexden OBE (

)

References

{{Reflist, 30em Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Think tanks based in the United Kingdom

Research and publications

Opinion polls

Advisory Council

Political Ambassadors

See also

References