IGF 2022 WS #363 Data Sovereignty in Asia Pacific and beyond

Organizer 1: Jennifer Chung, DotAsia Organisation
Organizer 2: Charles Mok, Global Digital Policy Incubator, Cyber Policy Center, Stanford University
Organizer 3: Edmon Chung, DotAsia Organisation
Organizer 4: Jenna Fung, DotAsia Organisation

Speaker 1: Charles Mok, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 2: Michaela Browning, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Anju Mangal, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group

Moderator

Jennifer Chung, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group

Online Moderator

Jenna Fung, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group

Rapporteur

Edmon Chung, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group

Format

Round Table - U-shape - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

1. What is data sovereignty and what legislations or regulations are being established in Asia Pacific, and how do countries in the region and also globally deal with the potential conflicts that may arise?
2. How legitimate is data sovereignty for the protection of cybersecurity or even national security, and are there sufficient safeguards for rights of the users in the region, including the freedom of expression and their security and privacy?
3. As nations are negotiating both bilateral and multilateral data exchange agreements, will these agreements turn out to be effective ways for users and corporations to work around data sovereignty restrictions, or will they end up splintering the Internet?

Connection with previous Messages: There is a strong link to the IGF 2021 Katowice messages to this proposed workshop. In particular, message 3. Economic and Social Inclusion and Human
Rights that calls for Agile regulatory frameworks at the national, regional and, where possible, global levels. The data sovereignty legislation and regulatory frameworks discussion proposed in this workshop, starting from the Asia Pacific region and extending beyond, precisely furthers this call.

SDGs

16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
17. Partnerships for the Goals


Targets: SDG 16: Justice for All and Build Effective Accountable and Inclusive Institutions at all levels. States and jurisdictions with a strong Rule of Law help foster and build accountability in institutions and national structures. Predictable policy making, regulation and law making especially when it comes to Freedom of Speech, addressing censorship and combatting disinformation is crucial.
SDG 17: A balanced and rights-based regulatory framework is essential to further a successful Global Partnership for the Goals.

Description:

The future of the Internet is facing a critical crossroads moment with technologists, developers, corporations and users of the Internet facing a collision of technological, regulatory and geopolitical factors. At Stanford's Global Digital Policy Incubator program, a project has been initiated, lead by the workshop organizers, to analyse the development and trends of digital policies in Asia Pacific, and this proposed panel will be the follow up discussion from the Asia Pacific Regional IGF on the timely subject of disinformation and censorship, looking across to see how these policy problems are being address across different regions and also at the global level.

Expected Outcomes

As this is a proposed follow-up workshop from the workshop to be held at the 2022 Asia Pacific Regional IGF, we will be bringing in the discussion, outcomes and outputs to discuss and compare with other regions at this proposed global IGF workshop. Outcomes from this proposed workshop will form the basis of a proposed Asia Pacific Digital Policy Incubator that will look specifically development and trends of digital policies in Asia Pacific and to a wider extent compared across the UN regions.

Hybrid Format: We will be utilizing all the IGF official tools for hybrid meeting. The online and in-person moderators will be paying particular attention to queue management when it comes to equitable opportunities for remote and in-person participants to interact with the round-table speakers and each other.

There will be Q&A sessions interspersed between the discussion of the three policy questions to have ample audience (remote and in-person) interaction.

We would welcome additional tools that will make accessibility possible for IGF participants that rely on accessibility tools - a suggestion for the IGF hosts is to include sign-language interpretation (in addition to the UN language interpretation) for all sessions to enable full and equitable participation for all.

Online Participation



Usage of IGF Official Tool.