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World Information Society Day

World Information Society Day is celebrated annually on May 17, marking the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. It was instituted by the Plenipotentiary Conference in Malaga-Torremolinos in 1973. In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) called upon the UN General Assembly to declare May 17 as World Information Society Day to focus on the importance of ICT and the wide range of issues related to the Information Society raised by WSIS. The main objective of the day is to raise global awareness of societal changes brought about by new technologies (primarily from the advent of the Internet) and aims to help reduce the digital divide.