Digital ethics: Global trends and divergent paths

This study focuses on how government bodies address digital ethics in their policies. Using a structural topic model (STM), an automated text mining technique, we analyze 71 policy documents published between 2007 and 2022 by national governments and international governmental organizations (IGOs). Our analysis identifies 22 prominent topics clustered into three major themes: the development of responsible technologies, digital rights, and ethical governance. This study provides a comprehensive overview of these topics and themes, including major similarities among and differences between various policies. We reveal the evolution of these themes over time and discuss key elements in policies. While the findings suggest a consensus on core ethical principles guiding the development and uses of digital technologies, significant differences emerge between countries and IGOs regarding the specific topics addressed and the policy priorities. This study contributes to the digital ethics debate by providing a comprehensive overview of prevailing themes in government policies, highlighting both common ground and areas of divergence. We also discuss the implications of these findings and propose directions for future research.