The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in João Pessoa, Brazil, from 10 to 13 November 2015. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Before we start the closing session, we are supposed to have an open mic session for about 20 minutes. We will start in two minutes. And then we will go into the closing session. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Let's quickly start the open mic and taking stock session.
We are taking stock of the events that have passed since Monday. We have Professor Hartmut Glaser from the organizing committee, and we also have Yolanda Martinez, from next year's ‑‑ this is of course presuming that the IGF mandate is renewed ‑‑ committee, to also listen. Thank you.
We will hand it over to Mr. Glaser.
>> HARTMUT GLASER: First of all, let me thank once more for a great support that we have received, all participants who have accepted to come to our event, as an organizer, on behalf of the Brazilian Government. I think that everybody understood that CGI involved itself in a very intense way. We would like to thank for the support received, and of course, when you are the leader of a project, you cannot cater to all requests, but this means that maybe we did something that did not meet some people's expectations.
Having an open mic, we would like for you to say that which, the way that the event was for you, how it was for you.
We will take notes, and we will try to overcome these shortcomings in future events. There is some guidelines that we received from the United Nations.
We have to cope with some limitations, but this is a cooperative work.
This is a partnership among different people and different organizations and groups. We therefore thank for everybody's support. We know that there is no such thing as perfection, and we would like to receive your feedback should you have any. Those who would like to use the mic, all comments and all suggestions that already some of you can give us, thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. My name is Dembre Kandeh. I'm part of the delegation of Freedom House, Civil Society group, including global activist, journalists, academics and lawyers from more than a dozen countries around the world. We are glad to be here at the 10th Internet global meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. Our statement is as follows.
We believe that the IGF is the most appropriate platform for the debates about the future of the Internet. We believe the importance of holding and strengthening the multistakeholder approach, to ensure that Internet demands open, global and secure. Multistakeholder approach remains one of the few viable options that Civil Society has to continue to participate and make our voice heard.
It allows us to help shape the debate on human rights, as they relate to current discussions and security, surveillance and bridging the digital divide. The 2015 net freedom report by Freedom House covering 65 countries from around the world assessing Internet freedom, that indicates for a fifth consecutive year Internet freedom is declining globally.
Some of the repressive tools used by governments include content removal, arrest, harsh surveillance laws and technologies, all which allow governments to undermine and use anonymity. We call on the IGF committee to understand these dangers to human rights and engage in discussions on how to ensure that Internet is a tool of empowerment and not a tool of repression. In calling for more promotion of human rights, our group delegation makes recommendations. Extend the IGF mandate. The mandate is set to expire at the end of December, 2015. We call on the UN Member States to strongly support extending the IGF mandate. We believe that certain mandates hinder the ability of IGF to fully achieve the outcomes and stakeholders involved in a must seek better process.
There is need to expand the space for Civil Society voices. Civil Society has an understanding of the opportunities and weaknesses of the Internet by people from all walks of life and around the world. The input of Civil Society is a central informative, for the technology, business and Government communities for better understanding of how the internet is used. Civil Society is thus even more essential, when it comes to developing countries, basic human rights both off line and online are violated. There is need for international standards of human rights. All laws, policies, regulations and terms of reference, other methods that are used to govern the Internet must adhere to international standards of human rights, including but not limited to article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression, article 19 of the same instrument guaranteeing right to privacy, and article 20 guaranteeing the right to free association.
The Human Rights Council resolution 2008 adopted by consensus in July 2012 are finding that the same rights that people have off‑line in Democratic countries must be protected online in particular freedom of expression.
I'm pledging to further how the Internet can be an important tool for development and for exercising human rights. We wish to thank the Government of Brazil and the State Government of State of Paraiba, Joao Pessoa, for their warm hospitality and efforts in hosting the 10th annual meeting of the global IGF. Thank you.
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Can I ask you, please, that you give me this document in a written form that we can include this, please?
>> DEMBRE KANDEH: Yes, sir.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: I'd like to ask that you please use the time, we have long lines, I will give one minute for everyone for comments. If you have documents, give them to us and we will include your comments in the document.
Vint Cerf, your turn.
>> VINT CERF: Thank you very much. I wanted to say briefly that this is the best IGF I've ever attended. It has been spectacularly well ...
(applause).
Everyone who contributed to make this so successful, facilities, hospitality and everything, deserves enormous credit. I'm sorry for my friends in Mexico, you have an enormous hurdle to jump over next year.
The second thing I want to say is that I've come away from this particular IGF with the very strong sense that we really have to commit ourselves to Internet stewardship, not just governance but stewardship to preserve those values and features that have made the Internet so valuable. I thank the gentleman who just made that wonderful statement, and commit myself as well to preserving those features that are so important to all of us on the Internet. Thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you. Dear lady on my right side. Please.
>> AUDIENCE: Hello. My name is Thais Stein from Vanuatu, and I talk in Portuguese. I'd like to state my position as a young person. We had many youngsters, we had lots of support, but we had to overcome hurdles. It was difficult to take space at the panels. We tried to take a stance by asking questions, but sometimes people were not interested in our positions. Sometimes they did not answer our questions.
Yesterday, there was this panel with youth, about youth, and there was no youth participation. When we complained, they said you can complain about it in Facebook.
Let me say that we are the future of IGF. We young people, we grew in this environment. We have a lot to say. But we need to hold voice. We are not here just for you to see us along the corridors. We need to be heard. Thank you very much.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Next one.
>> AUDIENCE: She did an amazing job, first I want to say that. I'm Susoric Herng, a member of the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance. We all think that businesses would benefit from hearing voices of their customers. Governments would benefit from hearing from their future and present voters. But young people who are the most active Internet users, content creators and policymakers, all among others still face an unreasonable access blockage to participate in Internet Governance due to language barriers, traveling costs, lack of networks, and the other reasons that was just previously stated.
We the YCIG want to focus on amplifying the voice of young people on all topics discussed at the IGF, not only by organizing our own sessions, but also by contributing to other sessions and participating in panels. We want to say thanks to the youth IGF projects for making participation possible to many. However, we shall keep this momentum and continue to give more young people from all regions the opportunities to attend the IGF and other related events.
We urge everyone here to help us in your own country and network to increase youth awareness and engagement in Internet Governance. You can visit YCIG.org, our Facebook page, or speak to us, if you believe we improve the situation for a better more equal and effective fora of Internet Governance. Thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Good afternoon. I'm Shen Yu Yeng. We have a section on multistakeholder. We talk about issues we are concerned and how to make the IGF process environment more friendly for youth. We will highlight important items. One thing we all agree is that we want to engage the not attending. However, sadly, there are still hurdles for our further steps such as language barriers and understanding of the issues.
Here comes two suggestions. First of all, we welcome more interactive workshops in IGF. They can be workshops in different formats. The present panel setting hinders many youth from participating and forcing out their fields. There should not be only panel setting but could be round tables or debates. Apart from this there should be more capacity‑building. Local and regional initiatives are very important to connect youth from different areas to Internet Governance. For instance, the youth program initiated by Latin America Youth IGF aims to provide a platform on sharing issues from different countries and stakeholders' viewpoints as a guidance for youth before engaging.
We will be grateful if the IGF Secretariat and everyone here can make this happen. We are here because we care. Thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Good evening. I would like to speak in Portuguese, please. My name is Hudson Lupes De Souza. I'm a part of the youth observatory and part of youth IGF. Let me tell you about my experience as my first IGF. I participated in many panels and many discussions.
There was some discussions which had points in common. Some words were always popping up, like distance, failure, provide access. I think we need to change these words a bit, change what we discuss, I mean. I hope that in the next edition, if I should participate, I hope that there will be more discussions about other things, like instead of asking how we are going to give access, how we are going to include those who are socially and digitally excluded.
We are not just discussing access. We want to discuss dignified access, access which will bring something to people, will contribute to people. I'd also like for people to discuss open software, open data. I see many big companies around here, companies that might be interested in giving the guidelines of these discussions. But if we want to have a discussion which is enriching in all scopes, in all areas, we need to think about what is economically accessible. Also I'd like to discuss transparency, and a little more respect to our language, our participation as youngsters.
We do have some problems in panels and all. I hope all of you were listening to me. I hope you do speak Portuguese, because I would have liked for you to hear to what I have to say.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: On my left, are you on line are you on the line, please?
>> AUDIENCE: Adeel Sadiq from Pakistan. I have a quick comment to make. We recommend you try to increase participation of young people at IGF. Most of the people I have heard have IGF, or no heard at all. I understand there have been good initiatives like ISOC Ambassadorship program and youth idea, but still they are not enough. My friends say you have been to IGF, you discuss in the Internet community that you have been in Pakistan for so many years. We have to do something about that. Most people sitting here must have been using the Internet at the age of 20 or maybe later. But we, my generation have been linked to the Internet of age 2 or 3.
Tomorrow or day after tomorrow, we are going to take over the Internet. We are going to take your place. So but for that we need your experience and expertise. At the same goals, start at the early age and the possibilities are endless. Thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you. I like to remember, one minute, please. We have long lines. And we have only 15 minutes. Milton, please.
>> MILTON MUELLER: Maybe you should consider expanding the time for the open Forum. We hear a lot of pent up energy here. People have things to say.
(applause).
There goes my minute.
(laughter).
Okay. I want to talk about the way the IGF works and its promise. I think it's time for IGF to face squarely the fact that it does not know what to do with it is main sessions. You have 2,000 people from all over the world who are the most committed and engaged people in Internet Governance in the world, and you get them into a single room and you don't know what to do with them except create a larger and larger panel discussion. I think we need to take the model, working with people to make consequential choices or decisions about Internet Governance.
I think if you do that, you will revitalize the IGF and if you don't do that, I think the energy will peter out no matter how long your extension from the UN. Thank you.
>> OLIVIER CREPIN‑LEBLOND: I'm the chair of the ICANN European at large organization, but also today I'd like to speak on behalf of the Dynamic Coalition of core Internet values. The Dynamic Coalitions met yesterday afternoon and this morning and presented their amazing work that they have been doing in the past years, and that they are looking to be continuing in the forthcoming years. I wanted to make an appeal to everyone here in the room to join a Dynamic Coalition, and to continue that work and help develop the work of these Coalitions. I think it's really important.
If you don't know how to join them, the only way to find out is to actually go into the Web site, look at this morning's session. You will see a listing of the Coalitions, names of people. Check it out on the search engine and get in touch with them.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you. The next, please.
>> AUDIENCE: I'm Sonigito Ekpe from Nigeria, speaking for myself. Over the years we have seen the UN having so many trenches. Today we are discussing Sustainable Development. In Africa, where I come from, I don't have quality education. How can I develop? Secondly, can we respect cultures, so that we do not transplant other cultures to force people to do things in a normal way so that we can all grow together and respect each other in a united world. Thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: My name is Vdime Marg. Thank you very much. Thank you for the good organization and the best of the IGFs. Thank you. Two things I want to raise. One is the safety of our children online. I want to challenge all of us, the technical community, the academic community, and the youth, what do we do to stem the tide of recruiting our children for terrorism on time. It is something that is creating a lot of HackAc. For us, both as parents and as country, others are recognized online. So what are the technical solutions, what are the economic solutions? What are the policy solutions to it?
Second, is that we cannot talk about Connecting the Next Billion when we want to curtail the access of those that are not connected. So I want to ask those that are proposing to remove the Zero‑Rating, to have a rating. If we are to connect the world, you have to remove that.
The third thing is that, the third thing I want to say is that the turquoise in my environment are the ISPs, they collected monies from both their traditional services, and ISPs. So how can one be talking about not continuing the Zero‑Rating process of getting our information online.
The young people I want to challenge, can you tell your fellows or your young people not to abuse people online. There is so much abuse of young people saying all sorts of things online. And in my environment, it is not acceptable. And call for some action from the Government. So young people, talk to your members so that they will be civil when they communicate on line. Those of you that are asking for freedom, freedom, freedom, we want you to be free and say things but to be civil. Thank you.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you. I'm Ruslard De Sousa from the Federal University of Paraiba here in Joao Pessoa. I will be very quick. I would like to say that we now are seeing proposals from the private sector that don't allow people to have in fact free Internet. The word "free" shouldn't be used, just in the economic frame.
We need to enable development following the economic, social, political and cultural sectors, about the great single argument that, for example, giving free Internet, limited for the poor, is far more beneficial than no Internet at all, is dangerous. The major question to raise is, how can we turn effectively this bad process into a regular situation with more freedom and neutrality, because I think we could reverse that.
Also I'd like to congratulate the LGBT panel and the IGF this year which fulfilled the role. I hope we can see more LGBT panels in the next IGFs; and also connecting the GBT talk with other conversations like hate speech. Thanks so much. I'd like to say thank you.
>> SUBI CHATURVEDI: I'm a member of the MAG and I come from India. To the beautiful City of Joao Pessoa, and the wonderful people of Brazil, I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for your generosity.
(applause).
Thank you for your warmth, hospitality, and thank you for this rich and energetic vivacious discussion. We ran sessions this year that had panelists and experts, and we innovated in terms of format.
The value of a session is shown from the kind of commitment that in‑room participation and online participation brings to it; for three hours not one person moved. I think there is then merit in what they are doing. We are open and welcome to suggestions and each year we learn. We learn from the community. We learn from your commitment, who travel over 30 hours to be here to be at this IGF. To my young friend, one of the most fantastic sessions that I attended was the session run by youth, and looked at issues with a fresh perspective.
This is a call to all members as people from the community to be nicer, kinder, friendlier, and to make that special effort and outreach. And to my young friend from Pakistan, thank you for making the journey and for being here.
Last year, the MAG introduced three new members. We are very proud of the contribution that you are making and framing discussions with the fresh perspective. We continue to be here. We continue to learn. We continue to grow, and hope to see you all at Mexico in 2016. Thank you.
(applause).
>> AUDIENCE: Mwendwa Kivuua from the ISOC Ambassador program, African Civil Society and Information Society presenting in East Africa. In this IGF we have seen a lot of people trying to speak on behalf of developing world on many issues, especially on issues on Zero‑Rating, access and cost. We call for balanced panels. An example is yesterday in the main session, when the discussions on Zero‑Rating, with over 15 panelists, there was no representation from Africa. Yet, we have very many able and distinguished people among us who can also represent us in those panels.
Please, don't speak on our behalf. Africa too has a voice.
(applause).
Such arguments in this IGF were awesome. The best practice is to have several such outputs to triangulate the results. Time and time again we have found that research can be passed based on those funding them. We call for such as to be able to reveal the source of funding. The last point is that there are issues. Brazil organized it well, we didn't have any issues in our countries, and also when you are being received at the airport it was so perfect. Obrigado.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Your turn.
>> LUCAS NUNES: My name is Lucas Nunes. I'm also representing the Youth of IGF program and the Youth Observatory. I will be speaking Spanish, Portuguese and English so I represent the whole of Americas and Caribbean. Please use your phones.
We have here, we are here present for a new outlook on the IGF. We see the need to say that this is not enough. It's no big news that our participation at IGF should already have been one for a while now. We can say that our voice is not one that is fully listened to, to be able to have a full impact on Internet Governance.
We need to start to redefine the whole participation inclusion, not only in theory but also in practice. Youth participation should be progressive, encompassing not only the meeting within itself but also the possibility that the Internet gives us to reach proper consensus. By consensus we mean we need to encourage the youth that cannot be reached. There are many social barriers they face, racial, sexual, cultural or economical. We call on the audience to help us walk the talk and let our voices be heard.
(applause).
>> Nigel.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you. Nigel Hickson, ICANN. First of all, let me endorse what everyone else has said. What a beautiful place, beautiful country, beautiful people. It is so fantastic being here!
(cheers and applause).
And, here we are, pent up with energy, enthusiastic, at the end of a fantastic week. But let me say something to the youth today. We were all like this once. Perhaps not quite as passionate. But we all tried. But where did we go wrong?
If we had this passion, if we had this commitment, if I had this passion and commitment 30, 40 years ago, why didn't things get better then?
You have to take this passion and commitment forward. You have to take it to your Governments. You have to take it to your institutions. You have to say, representers and international fora, in a way that we can all have a contribution to make, to your leaders of the UN. In a few weeks time there is going to be debating the future of the WSIS, the future of Internet Governance. Tell those leaders that you want it to endorse what we have discussed here, the multistakeholder approach, endorse the value of this discussion, the IGF, the national, the regional, the global fora.
And really be involved. Then in 20 and 30 years time, the young people won't have to repeat the same arguments. Thank you so much.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Next, please.
>> AUDIENCE: Hi, I'm Viviane Vinagre from NETI and the young observatory of youth. I'm going to speak in my own language, Portuguese. Please use your phones.
Well, at this IGF, I notice that there were many debates about people and about GBT. But there was big discussion about what is gender, and what is the issue related to freedom of expression online, and how that is for all the groups, and how that is so important for us to express ourselves and to have our opinions positioned.
But there are a few things that made me not very comfortable, not about IGF but about Internet itself. I looked at social media, as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, on these sessions about gender and the LGBT issue.
What I read made my eyes bleed, because what actually went on was having a lot of people offending individuals that were, where they started to show hate speech about the topic, and they started to really have very chauvinistic messages.
>> Could you please wrap up? I apologize.
>> VIVIANE VINAGRE: What went on after that, what I mean by all of this is that we women, LGBT individuals, all minority, we will not silence with all the hate speech and all the offense and violence, we will not feel that we are going to go to other IGFs, other places, and we will speak out to make sure we can be heard.
That is the message. We will not give up on our rights!
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Before we continue, I need to ask for your understanding. We have an agenda. We invite authorities, they already are in the room. We have some limitations.
I discussed ‑‑ I was not prepared to see so many people coming on the lines. My proposal is, we would like to listen to all questions, all comments. And we will announce a Web Page that you can send all your comments, that will be on the Web site.
So we have some limited time. Please stop to go to the line. I cannot attend everyone. We will select one of each line. We don't have more time. I need to respect invitations. I'm only sharing limiting so I don't have power to decide.
One in each line, will have the voice. All others, I ask for your understanding. Please send your comments and we will use it.
Please, respect, I don't can change time, I don't have this power. Thank you very much for your understanding.
Please the first of this line.
>> AUDIENCE: Okay. Hello, my name is Andre Fernandes, from the youth IGF program. I'm a member of the observatory to Latin America for the Internet. And I have a question that I said yesterday that I would like to repeat here, since this is the best place to in the best moment to do. I'd like to see in the IGF the real applications of the words we repeat so much in this incredible days, like the ideas of multistakeholder, original thinking and discussion, respect for cultural questions and multilingual questions and other things.
We need this change and be open to the voice of different peoples, also to break the paradigm of the multistakeholder that, someone said that cannot be divided into the complex of the lives that composes the classical. Like Mr. Larue said in this room, we need to stop talking about these words, and execute these ideas. And this edition of IGF needs to be the turning point, so that the next year, we can bring to the Forum the results of the execution of these ideas in the regions and cultures; no more words, but results.
And last, I have here the cooperation of the observatory to officially give to the Chairman of the session. So thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you. On the right, please.
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you. Hi, I'm Auke Pels, youth representative of Holland. I'd like to make a statement about this conference.
At the start of this conference, protests were checked and protestors were removed from the audience. We are here to talk about a open and free Internet. If you can't say or express anything we want, where are we getting with this discussion? Let people express theirselves and work together in an open and free Internet. Thank you.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you. Please, I announced one of each line. So only the first of this line and then of the other line. Please, I expect you to cooperate. Thank you. Please.
>> AUDIENCE: Eduardo Rojas, Bolivia, from APC. The new telecommunications law in Bolivia shares the electromagnetic and spectrum into three sectors, states, society and private sector. The access of communities and social actors to provide Telecom services could help improve and balance the service rendering in terms of access to Internet in my country. If we replicate this model with original vision, we could have the opening of new ISPs with community and with business names.
I think the private sector that provides access to information and to the Internet can be more perfect if we have the balance of multistakeholders, in order to generate trans‑national financial capital.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: The last speaker. Only one.
>> This is a joint statement. I'm Danny O'Brien from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and this is Carlos Brito.
>> CARLOS BRITO: Next IGF will be in Mexico. I'm Mexican, and I want to share with you guys, you will be very welcome in Mexico next year. However, I want to tell you also what kind of place you are coming. It's a place with 90 percent impunity, it's a place with widespread and generalized corruption, and torture, and according to international bodies, even the UN recognizes this. It is a place within 15 years a hundred journalists have been killed, and 21 disappeared. Only this year, eight journalists have been killed. It's the number one buyer of hacking team tools, including the Government represented there in the panel, and we have data retention laws. We have torture tools being bought as well. We think the IGF needs to be a way to ensure that the places, that these change or transform. I really hope that this extremely well‑organized IGF in Brazil helps the activists and journalists and Civil Society in Brazil to fight censorship, to fight repression and make a change from themselves.
There is a, Mexico, there is enormous Civil Society arising, fighting for freedom of expression and for freedom of Internet, and we will be delighted to receive you there.
(applause).
>> HARTMUT GLASER: Thank you very much. We close the open mic. Thank you for all the contributions. We take note of all the information. Again, I will mention we have a Web site: IGFonog.ch.
Please, if you have any comment, any contribution, send this to this message. We will publish this on the Web site from IGF. Thank you very much for the open mic, for the contributions. I respect all the ideas, but we don't, we can't extend the time because of time limitation and other guests that we already invited. Thank you again for your cooperation and your understanding. Thank you very much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry that we don't have enough time. This is one of the lessons we will take to Mexico, and increase the time for the open mic session.
Before we start the closing session, I'd like to say a few words. I don't know if many of you know Mr. Daniel Dufour. He was our conference services coordinator, and he died this year at the beginning of the year. He was with us for all our IGFs since 2006, even pre2006 during the working group on the Internet Governance.
I would just like to remember him, and to say that he is missed here at this IGF, which is the first IGF without him. And we will miss him.
(applause).
(end of session)