LISBON, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made an appeal on Thursday for the digital revolution to counter the wave of intolerance and fight for peace and freedom, as the four-day Web Summit closed.
"The digital revolution has to be for dialogue, for peace. I know it is difficult, because this wave that goes through the world will last four, six, eight years, but it is the opposite of the digital revolution, its meaning," Rebelo de Sousa said in the closing speech.
The president called on all participants to "fight for values, for freedom, for multilateralism, not for unilateralism and for peace to counter the wave that crosses the world.
"This is the message that must be spread throughout the world," he added.
This year's edition of the Web Summit, the third in Lisbon, brought together 69,304 participants from 159 countries, over 1,200 speakers, over 1,500 investors and 2,600 journalists.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager and former British prime minister Tony Blair were present at the summit.
Web Summit, originally held in Dublin, Ireland, was moved to Lisbon in 2016. The summit has generated 500 million euros (568 million U.S. dollars) economic benefit for the country since then.
