Co-Designing the Future of Digital Democracy with the Council of Europe
Interview with Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, about the previous hackathon.
When public institutions face rapidly evolving digital threats—from AI-generated hate speech to network manipulation—traditional policy drafting cycles can feel slow. As Kreativdistrikt, our mission for our 5th project with the Council of Europe (CoE) was clear: design, direct, and execute a high-impact innovation sprint that transforms complex human rights frameworks into functional, scalable technology.
Organized as part of the Council of Europe’s New Democratic Pact for Europe and hosted in Strasbourg during #NoHateSpeechWeek, the Democracy Hackathon mobilized over 140 participants, mentors, and international civil society partners across 4 specialized tracks. Here is how we structured, facilitated, and delivered this flagship initiative.
The Challenge: Translating High-Level Policy into Code
The core operational objective was bridging the gap between high-level institutional intent and ground-level technical execution. Working directly within the strategic framework championed by Secretary General Alain Berset, Kreativdistrikt managed the execution of a hackathon model where interdisciplinary trios and quartets (Developers, Policy Experts, and UX/UI Designers) rapidly prototyped deployable solutions competing for a €65,000 total prize pool (€50,000 Microsoft grant + €15,000 Council of Europe cash prize).
The 4 Track Challenges & Expert Partners
To ground the sprint in real-world policy gaps, Kreativdistrikt collaborated with leading international institutions, universities, and research NGOs to co-design four distinct track challenges:
Privacy-Preserving Hate Speech Detection (PrivHSD)
Maximizing the “Privacy-HSD trade-off” by building AI tools that identify online hate speech while remaining completely agnostic to personal user attributes to prevent malicious doxing.
Mentor / Partner: Stephen Meisenbacher, Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) Identification
Utilizing LLM-enabled semantic clustering and dashboard visualization to detect multi-account coordinated harassment and targeted narratives across digital platforms in real time.
Mentor / Partner: Zahed Amanullah, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
From Reporting to Response (Online Hate & Gender-Based Violence)
Designing tech-enabled reporting and referral pathways for electoral commissions and platform integrity teams to turn user reports of suspected online gender-based violence (OGBV) into structured, actionable evidence.
Mentor / Partner: Camila Weinmann, Researcher at Democracy Reporting International (DRI).
“Think Out of the Box” (Social Transformation & Prevention)
Moving beyond content removal to design creative tools, web/mobile applications, or educational frameworks that prevent, contextualize, counter, and transform the social dynamics of hate speech using an intersectional lens.
Mentor / Partner: Prof. Dr Sabine Cullmann, Lecturer & Academic Researcher at the University of Strasbourg.
The Kreativdistrikt Methodology: End-to-End Execution
Executing an international sprint at the Palais de l’Europe required rigorous operational oversight. Kreativdistrikt led the project across three key phases:
- Cohort Curation & Virtual Warm-ups: Managing pre-event filtering of multidisciplinary trios and quartets, followed by organizing online prep sessions hosted by expert track mentors.
- Logistics & Hospitality: Full management of travel, central accommodations, and on-site operational flow for all selected participant teams traveling from across the 46 CoE member states to Strasbourg.
- Design Thinking Facilitation: Directing on-site sprint cycles, mentoring feedback loops, and ensuring seamless collaboration across backend engineering, human rights compliance, and UX/UI presentation.
Directing Interdisciplinary Team Dynamics
In software development for international public bodies, building tech requires strict adherence to human rights principles. Through curated mentoring frameworks, Kreativdistrikt ensured every team built with a “Rights by Design” architecture.
Developers worked side-by-side with policy specialists and designers to ensure that automated AI/NLP capabilities incorporated privacy guardrails, preserved freedom of expression, and converted complex datasets into clear, actionable dashboards for institutional stakeholders.
High-Level Stakeholder Engagement
A defining feature of the initiative was connecting youth technical talent directly with senior international decision-makers. Kreativdistrikt facilitated mentoring workflows and executive presentations before high-level figures, including Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset, showcasing how youth innovation directly feeds into the New Democratic Pact for Europe.
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Tangible Impact & Post-Event Implementation
The initiative delivered immediate, fundable outcomes:
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Grant Funding: Distribution of the €65,000 combined prize pool to fuel post-event development.
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Scientific & Institutional Pathways: Winning concepts from technical tracks (such as PrivHSD) received pathways toward academic publication, while track winners gained direct post-event implementation and incubation support from partners like DRI, ISD, TUM, and Microsoft.
Watch: Democracy’s Firewall — Highlights & Voices from the Winning Team and discover their journey from concept to victory.
A Reusable Blueprint for Public Sector Innovation
The Democracy Hackathon demonstrates how public institutions, universities, and technical agencies can collaborate effectively. By combining rigorous track design, cross-sector team curation, and seamless execution, Kreativdistrikt delivered a high-impact model for defending democratic resilience in the digital age.
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is Europe’s leading human rights organisation. Founded in 1949, it brings together 46 member states, working to uphold democracy, human rights, and the rule of law across the continent. Through legal standards, policy initiatives, and public engagement, the Council plays a key role in safeguarding democratic values in a rapidly changing world.
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