IGF 2019 Reports
- What is the cost of Internet deployment through innovative technologies? What are the implications for policy?
- What are the current trends in the digital skills training programs? What are the implications for policy?
- How can policy facilitate women’s Internet access and use?
Cost of Deployment:
- Operating expenses vary widely and appear to be more important than capital expenses (esp. backhaul)
- The average TV white spaces deployment costs more than the average Wi-Fi deployment
- Fixed cost of TV white space spectrum (average USD 145,444) is higher than for Wi-Fi based deployments (average USD 98,872)
- TV white space radios are generally more expensive than Wi-Fi equipment
- Higher costs may reflect better service/greater reach (esp. for revenue generating projects)
- Anchor institutions drive cost effectiveness
- Local communities may not have the capacity to operate the most innovative technologies
- Evaluation of costs should take into account differences in purchasing power parity
Digital Skills programs
- Projects do not have a viable business model for long-term sustainability
- There is a wide variance in curriculum and pedagogy, as well as on mode of delivery across projects
- Projects do not report outcomes in terms of learning rigorously with no structured M&E
Women’s access
- Women face unique challenges in access and use due to multiple, intersecting factors
- Relaxing just one barrier may not improve women’s access and use
- Addressing multiple barriers simultaneously can help to design more effective and sustainable interventions
- Policy should encourage the collaborations between project deployments and anchor institutions to drive cost effectiveness
- Policy should encourage a structured M&E to measure the learning outcomes of digital skills training programs
- Policy should address multiple barriers of women’s access simultaneously (e.g., infrastructure
- Jane Coffin from Internet Society drew attention to the less costly community network model among deployment projects
- Carlos Rey Moreno from APC mentioned that women only spaces can promote participation among women.
- Claire Sibthorpe from GSMA mentioned that affordability is still a main barrier for women around the world based on their work at GSMA.
- It is imperative to bring different stakeholders together to promote discussion and devise strategies that engage a broader range of stakeholders for more impactful and sustainable interventions and policy. At IGF, we don’t often have the opportunity to speak with local practitioners and implementers on the ground, technology companies, or funding agencies. That prevents us from learning about their challenges and sharing our findings and learnings with them. For instance, our work shows that most of the demand-side projects are grant-funded or CSR funded but these funds are one-time solutions and do not ensure sustainability. Dynamic Coalitions should offer more opportunities to meet with private organizations and funding agencies to identify more effective ways to allocate funds so that they will have more impact. Therefore, we would like to see more tech companies, funding agencies (e.g., Gates Foundation, IDRC, Microsoft etc) at IGF to open up the space for discussion.
50 people total, half women
- Women face unique challenges in access and use due to multiple, intersecting factors
- Relaxing just one barrier may not improve women’s access and use (e.g., in geographies where the decision makers are not women and women live with gatekeepers, the intervention should also involve gatekeepers such as in South East Asia; or in geographies where HIV is prevalent among women, interventions should be sensitive to the privacy concerns for women)
- Addressing multiple barriers simultaneously can help to design more effective and sustainable interventions
Sustainability of NRIs: Strategy for Future IGF
1. How do we ensure that Internet governance processes are truly inclusive?
2. How NRIs contribute to the Internet Governance process for the sustainable Internet Governance Forum ?
3. What could be the sustainable model of NRIs that make the scope of the IGF further significant?
There was a great discussion on the topic. Many regional, national and youth IGF representatives shared their experiences and thoughts. Most of the speakers and participants agreed on the importance of grassroot discourse on the IG. The budget is one of constraint to conduct the local and regional IGFs. Some other issues like the engagement of all the stakeholders, connection with the global IGF and the accountability of the forums were also highlighted.
It was discussed that the government role is significant and need the active engagement of the intergovermental cooperation too. It
Various models of NRIs were discussed. For example, African IGF is supported by African Union and the Union supports the secretariate and the certain budget to the forum too. But, in Asia Pacific, it is still a loose forum. Carrebian IGF model, EuroDIG in Europe are other model discussed in the workshop.
It was discussed that to develop the grass root engagement in the IG discourse, we need to strengthen the multi stakeholder engagement though capacity building and experience sharing.
Roughly 40 participants were in the workshop where the number of participants were 50-50.
The discussion did not discussed on the gender perspective but the participation in the workshop highly ballenced.
Digitally Skilling our Youth: Varied Global Approaches
- What are the current trends in the digital skills training programs?
- What are their implications for policy?
- Majority of projects do not have a viable business model for long-term sustainability
- There is a wide variance in curriculum and pedagogy, as well as on mode of delivery across projects
- Projects do not report outcomes in terms of learning rigorously with no structured M&E
- The digital skills training programs in Ghana and the West African sub region with a focus on Data protection policies, adopted practices and language and the proposed move from theoretical based learning to practical learning methods.
- The upsurge of communities and open spaces for digital skills training via two (2) case studies, their impact, possible adjustment that can better position young people to use the skills attained towards economic empowerment.
- Challenges such as infrastructure, resources, and policies that stifle the implementation of in-school and out-of-school approaches with focus on the trends in Ghana, West Africa and Africa at large.
- What generally is an attractive and rewarding approach to engage youth in digital training with a focus on fellowships, competitions, paid internships and opportunity for growth.
- Adoption is socially motivated so leveraging people’s social circles as a learning channel helps to engage target groups into digital literacy programs
- Goal-based learning methodologies that focus on teaching digital skills necessary to reach an end-goal can promote engagement and provide more benefits for target groups
- In-person and practical on-device workshops can make more impact than other forms of digital literacy training methods
- Connecting with anchor organizations such as tele-centers and libraries is essential for the strength of each program’s sustainability
- Choosing safe and easy to access locations such as schools, community centers, and libraries can minimize fears of harassment and lower transport costs, and improves the take-up
- Creating same or similar age, education, and occupation level groups for training programs can help to create a comfortable learning environment
- The session included the perspectives of the youth on the digital skills training programs, Lily Botsyoe from Ghana and Gab Karsan from Tanzania, and Liz Orembo from Kictanet and Youth Coalition on Internet Governance talked about the policy implications in East Africa.
- It is imperative to bring different stakeholders together to promote discussion and devise strategies that engage a broader range of stakeholders for more impactful and sustainable digital skills training programs and policy. At IGF, we don’t often have the opportunity to speak with local practitioners and implementers on the ground, technology companies, or funding agencies. That prevents us from learning about their challenges and sharing our findings and learnings with them. For instance, our work shows that most of the digital skills training programs are grant-funded or and are not often sustainable. There should be more opportunities for youth to meet with practitioners and funding agencies to identify more effective ways to allocate funds so that they will have more impact. Therefore, we would like to see more tech companies, funding agencies (e.g., Gates Foundation, IDRC, Microsoft etc) at IGF to open up the space for discussion.
- Offline participation was around 30 people, more than half were women.
- Identifying the best time of day for particular demographics is key to promote participation and gender equity when offering digital skills training
- Raising awareness of the potential benefits of Internet to gatekeepers such as community leaders, women’s husbands can advocate for digital literacy programs as a public good.
- Women face unique challenges in access and use due to multiple, intersecting factors
Additional policy recommendations:
<li>Raising awareness of the potential benefits of Internet to gatekeepers such as community leaders, women’s husbands can advocate for digital literacy programs as a public good.</li>
<li>Identifying the best time of day for particular demographics is key to promote participation and gender equity</li>
<li>Encouraging local communities to develop local content platforms through incentives, that are owned and operated by them can speed up the local content creation and improve ownership</li>
<li>Digital skills training programs should have a structured M&E to measure the learning outcomes of digital skills training programs </li>
<li>Relaxing just one barrier may not improve women’s access and use (e.g., in geographies where the decision makers are not women and women live with gatekeepers, the intervention should also involve gatekeepers such as in South East Asia; or in geographies where HIV is prevalent among women, interventions should be sensitive to the privacy concerns for women)</li>
<li>Addressing multiple barriers that affect women simultaneously can help to design more effective and sustainable interventions</li>
Is there a common understanding on the type of values that ought to be promoted by platform regulations?
What are some of the best strategies to ensure that digital platforms aim to maximize not only shareholder value, but values of the broader set of stakeholders affected by platform regulations?
To what extent are platforms the best-placed entities to identify which rights should be privileged when regulating social and economic interactions, and how should balancing between conflicting rights and values be conducted?
There was a broader concern about freedom of expression for the next years on social platforms. Some participants observed that companies should be called out toward the implementation of the principles on business and human rights. Especially, regulators could create procedural norms, such as due process on activities of content removal and toward more transparency of algorithms and data applications. However, on one hand it was pointed out that regulators are regulating without knowing about the subject. On another hand, it is a great worry that platforms are becoming private regulators. The fact that they can censor more content than what the law obligates was highlighted as a big concern.
The debate on content moderation should be less about the content that companies fail to remove and more about legal speech that platforms illegally censors. State regulation should be less about individual instances of speech and more about protection of procedural rules. Platform liability in this sense needs to be more for failures in terms of overarching procedure and architecture and less about individual instances of speech. Legislators and regulators should work on basic procedural. Less decisions on the merits of specific instances of speech by platforms, and more by its users. The discussion must be about user empowerment.
Participants mentioned some of initiatives already in course and some others that need attention. Some of them are: Santa Clara principles, the elaboration of a general Digital Services Act, and the Facebook Oversight Board. However, there’s an urge that companies cooperate with transparency and assuring freedom of speech according to public’s interests.
- Disinformation is not about to go away, but it can be targeted with other measures such as fact checking.
- A simple handbook for regulators to inform them about what is this debate about.
- It's necessary to draw a definition of platform. It is an essential term to create liability.
Onsite and online: 80 and 119
Women onsite: 40
Harassment and hate speech have women as a main target in general. Platforms could consider this and cooperate with measures toward promoting more equity in online participation.
A rich offer of local professional film, video, music and related cultural content has been proven to be a powerful driver of local demand for Internet connectivity and adoption. With this well documented context in mind, Workshop #244 explored the following key questions:
1) What type of policy environment is needed to support locally relevant content?
2) What are recent examples of successful programmes and initiatives that have supported a local content ecosystem?
3) How can developing countries successfully establish flourishing local content ecosystems? Additionally, how can developing countries ensure that those local content ecosystems are sustainable?
1) There are significant contrasts between the existence of rich pools of local talent on the one hand, and lacks in enabling policies, incentives and infrastructures in many countries. The case studies presented by the audiovisual panellists focused on attempts to develop best practice through projects designed to address such gaps. These included addressing the lack of representation of women as writers and directors of audiovisual content in the African Continent and developing opportunities for locals to professionalise film and TV production skills
2) For music, the main issue is with securing the inclusion of local content in its own markets and in global market offers. The role of a generation of new content publishers in music, with the skills to use digital technology to give local musicians both a local and a global reach, is an important development.
3) The issue of content being consumed without rights holders' authorisation led to observations by the audiovisual experts on the panel that the growing success of streaming video Internet platforms has begun to make the idea of paying for content on the Internet (e.g. through subscription) culturally acceptable.
4) The issue of ensuring local languages are represented and utilised in local content production was also discussed. There was consensus that this is an important component in considering empowerment strategies for the whole variety of local content.
5) The discussions also considered the roles of alternative forms of copyright licensing. Discussants held such forms of licensing made a useful contribution to the range of legal tools available to creators and producers of content: the freedom of individual artists or composers to choose between a monetizing option or a different form of licensing should be the guiding principle
Panellists agreed over the need to address a) gaps in capacity building to enable local content creators and producers to produce sustainably and to b) access distribution systems that ensure content may connect with audiences, local and global.
Audiovisual panellists said State incentives help remedy market failure factors for local content: tools such as coproduction treaties or tax incentives are seen as appropriate ones to help fill the skills gap in local content production workers and enhance opportunities for job creation and innovation in both production and distribution
Incentives may help buffer concern the participation of under-represented voices and cultural tropes. E.g. Case studies from Africa illustrated initiatives give African women more purchase on audiovisual content conception and production, through initiatives such as StoryLab which trains and empowers African female scriptwriters and a film school exclusively for women, set to open on Lagos
Regarding the music sector, the expert presented projects in Latin America to secure the inclusion of local music in local and global Internet offers. Music in the region is made more sustainable by a new approach combining live concerts with Internet video streams. Copyright supports these developments, with collecting societies monitoring such uses and collecting royalties.
- SCD concert halls in Chile and Autores In Vivo in Uruguay both create organic links between live concerts and Internet presence. Musicians perform in small concert venues and performances are video-recorded and uploaded. Artists participate actively in extending the presence of their content online.
- Since 2008, One Fine Day films managed the production of seven feature films in Kenya. The project has the support of the Deutsche Welle Akademie, a strategic partner of the German Ministry of Foreign Cooperation. The films are local stories developed by local talent. They were made to an international standard, and conceived as a live film school for a range of local technicians, and creators. One of the films, Nairobi Half Life, was released in cinemas in Kenya and has been the most successful Kenyan film to date. The films have since had a second life on OTT platforms.
- In 2015, Triggerfish Animation, one of the largest animation film studios in South Africa, launched Story Lab. The programme consisted in a pan-African call for projects from women. 35 projects were selected for development. One of those, Mama K’s Team 4 is currently in production as a series, with financial support from Netflix.
- The high cost of producing local audiovisual content calls for more State incentives and enabling regulation (e.g. lower tax on the import of film equipment) – this is IGF-relevant: such forms of State intervention should be seen as integral to Internet growth: local content drives demand for online services
- Schemes to empower women into the audiovisual content production process are needed to correct under-representation and gender bias – also relevant to general focus of IGF
- The increase in online consumption from legal sites and platforms that respect creators and producers’ copyright is helping develop a new acceptance that content needs to be sourced legally and paid for – relevant to IGF ecosystem: copyright is integral to local content sustainability
- For local music content, the Internet is fast becoming integrated into live concert strategies as a means of extending its reach and attracting users and listeners beyond local/national borders.
Onsite participants: 65 at peak
Online participants: not known
Estimated 35 women out of 65 onsite participants
Gender issues were at the core of the session. Amongst some of the structural gaps identified by discussants was the under-representation of women in some local content industries. Best practice in addressing gender bias was presented and discussed. They included the animation studio Triggerfish’s Story Lab initiative, designed to bring African women in as writers and show-runners for animated series with the new Internet platforms as the market. Other best practice investigated were plans for a women-only film school in Lagos, with the support of the Deutsche Welle Akademie.
The session’s Powerpoint may be access from the following link:
Sesssion organisers will make a running summary note of the session available by the end of 2019.
QUESTIONS:
- What role do human and child rights play for you when designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating AI systems?
- Have you thought about child rights when developing and/or implementing AI strategies? If so, how? If not, why not?
- How would policy guidance in this context be most useful (content, format, etc.)?
EXPECTATIONS:
- Better understand the needs of government, business, and civil society when it comes to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of AI systems upholding child rights.
- Brainstorm ideas for how child rights can be promoted when creating AI policies.
- Gather inputs on how the policy guidance can be most useful to government and business (content, format, etc.).
There was broad consensus that:
- There is a need to focus on the impact of AI on children, since children represent 1/3 of all internet users and are active users of AI-based systems.
- Policy guidance is needed in this area to help policymakers and industry interpret ethical AI principles into practice for children.
- Different regions and countries have specific needs and the way in which AI systems are provided and regulated for children need to be localized.
- The ICT industry and big tech companies play a crucial role in how AI systems are used by and for children, and need to be part of these efforts.
UNICEF will lead the creation of an AI and Children Policy Guidance working with a range of external stakeholders, including the Berkman Klein Centre, the IEEE, 5Rights Foundation, the World Economic Forum, and interested governments. The draft policy guidance will be shared in June 2020. After that governments and companies will be invited to pilot the guidance and provide feedback.
An estimated 30 people attended the session in person. The following presented:
Sandra Cortesi, Director of Youth and Media, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Steven Vosloo, Digital Policy Specialist, Office of Global Insight and Policy, UNICEF
Armando Guio, Fellow, Berkman Klein Center (and previous advisor to the Government of Colombia on their AI strategy)
Sabelo Mhlambi, Fellow, Berkman Klein Center
Karuna Nain, Global Safety Programs Manager, Facebook
The session was moderated by Jasmina Byrne, Chief, Policy Unit, Office of Global Insight and Policy, UNICEF
Different Parties' Role in PI Protection: AP's Practices
Policy Questions
- Asia Pacific Region's practices and attempts in personal information protection.
- Different parties' (including government, civil society, enterprises, research institutions and think tank) roles and responsibilities.
- The balance between technology innovation and information protection.
Expectations
- Effectively publicize the measures and practices of personal information protection in the Asia Pacific Region.
- Enhance participants’ mutual understanding on the role that different subjects can play in personal information protection
- Enhance dialogue on personal information protection in different countries in the Asia Pacific region by initiating dialogue for sharing excellent practices and experience.
This workshop focused on personal information protection in the current context, by reflecting on existing data protection regulations in the Asia Pacific region, the workshop was designed for participants to share views on different parties’ roles in personal information protection. The following are discussed: Government should strengthen their privacy law frameworks; Technical community call on policy makers understand their priorities in terms of managing personal information and the needs of how they want to operate the Internet; Civil societies should actively organize and publicize the best practice cases and experiences of personal information protection; Private sectors need to keep informed of the changing and diverse privacy regulatory landscape to minimize the privacy risk; Individuals should raise their awareness and know how to control their personal information.
There was broad support for the view that the right to personal information and privacy is a fundamental right for everyone, each party should play an effective role in the process of personal information protection. Some of the panelists also indicate that it is going to be a huge challenge for government, civil society, technical community and private sectors to reconcile economic, cultural, technical, and security perspectives on data in existing and future policies. The exchange in Asia Pacific region should be richer and more active.
Personal information protection is becoming a more and more severe issue not only in Asia Pacific region but the entire world. To further strengthen IGF's role in global data governance, it is suggested that more practical measures should be taken, such as call for best practices, successful cases exhibition, data protection compliance training, etc.
Some panelists shared information about China regulatory agencies' special clean-up campaigns which targeting apps that collect and use personal information illegally. Apart from the government and civil societies’endeavors in this campaign, it also encourages netizens to report violation behaviors in apps, which get individuals fully involved in the process of personal information protection.
More active discussions and research works among different regions and countries should be conducted. With a historical advantage in the field of Internet governance, as well as the support from the UN, IGF is always an effective platform for in-depth communication.
We have at around 50 on-site participants and 10 online (zoom) participants, according to a rough tally, 40 percent of them are women.
It has been an consensus that the legal protection of personal information and privacy should be the basic right for everyone, no matter what the person's gender, region or community. One of the panelist even indicated that in some country in Asia Pacific, women's privacy right was protected ahead of men's right.
- Participants have reached the consensus that in the absence of global personal information protection rules, each party should clearly define its role and responsibilities in the protection process, especially in the Asia Pacific region, where the basis of data governance is weaker, and the governance capacities and policies are quite discrepant.
- Communication channels need to be established between government, civil society, technical community, private sector and individual, to jointly build a trust and sustainable network.
- Proposed building alignment across the region to form a mutual recognition mechanism on personal information protection.
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Put forward the need to attach great importance to promote the development of regional personal information protection and promote the need for cooperation, thus enhance the level of global data governance.
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How can technical community, private sectors, governments, civil society and transnational organizations employ and design a universal personal data protection framework to develop effective policy?
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Is it possible to establish a universal mechanism that not only monitors and evaluates the data transfer, but also settles disputes towards data governance?
Throughout the discussion, it aims at establishing fundamental principles for personal data protection in cross-border context for future reference. Convention 108+, will be the starting point of our discussion that helps us to dive in the mechanism of establishing a universal personal data protection framework. The discussion will then follow by identifying limitations on the existing protection legislature and its respective impact on the global south and global north. Eventually, we expect to evaluate the possibility of settling disputes on personal data protection with a universal mechanism.
There was broad support for the view that even though it is very strong and detailed, GDPR is too heavy and cumbersome for developing countries to adopt because of the lack of infrastructure, sensitive economies which might be negatively affected by over-regulation and lack of genuine need for such an advanced legislation. Many indicated that the voices of civil society on the issue should be raised more. Some focused more on policy challenges and opportunities, while others emphasized the role of infrastructure and the need to discuss it more. Also many supported that the legislations should be formed on local levels through regional trade agreements relying on the framework only as a guideline or reference. This will allow civil society to have more participation on the issue through local parliaments and other governmental structures.
Economic: data protection policies should be incorporated into the business models of companies. Data protection policies can be incorporated into the regional trade agreements or into consumer protection laws.
Social-cultural: introduction of e-literacy in schools’ curricula as early as possible should be promoted more.
Technical:
Overarching: local parliaments and governments should be the champions of the local laws, so that civil society can find their way to voice out their opinions on the legislature. The courts may use human rights regulation mechanisms where data is a cause of human rights abuse.
Convention 108+: more flexible and affordable framework compared to GDPR. It is the only legally binding, it is open to third parties. There are 55 parties already, 47 of them are members of the Council of Europe. It is not much advertised compared to GDPR. It is reaching out to Latin America and Africa, however, there is not much contact with Asian region.
ASEAN agreement: cross-border data protection as a part of trade agreements; 10 member countries, 700 million people, very diverse culturally and economically. ASEAN grows because of entrepreneurs. The governments understand the need to protect personal data and they agreed to work on economic growth.
Kenya: localized data protection law formulated by local governments with the help of Council of Europe. Kenya privacy and data protection bill was passed recently, GDPR was a good starting point for them, but there are some global standards that cannot be implemented on local level. In such a case, local parliaments and governments should be the champions of the local laws, so that civil society can find their way to voice out their opinions on the legislature.
Private sector should not shift the responsibility on civil society which does not have enough knowledge on data processing. Businesses have to provide users with technology that they can trust, they should not care about whether their data is duly protected. Computer science students should learn more about human rights if they want to work with human-centered technologies. We should strive to avoid criminalization and regulation which cannot be implemented locally. Business models should be developed with a built-in data protection mechanisms. There should be more promotion of Convention 108+.
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Please estimate the total number of onsite and online participants.
Total number: 79; women: 30. -
Please estimate the total number of women present onsite and online.
Online participants
YouTube participants: 8
Zoom participants: 14
N/A
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The framework needs to be sensitive and practical towards the needs and resources of developing countries. The framework should allow global south to find the right balance between data protection and economic growth. Many developing countries are discouraged to implement data protection laws when they look at GDPR which is too complicated. These countries may not have the necessary infrastructure to implement these laws. Also SMEs in these countries may heavily depend on internet services so burdening them with data protection compliance may hurt the economic growth in the region. Local political issues which allow big actors to dictate the data flow dynamics in regions also cannot be ignored.
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There is a severe lack of awareness. The emotional disconnect between the data and its source is alarming. Data represents people but because of this disconnect, many people fail to understand the meaning and the importance of data protection. We should raise awareness about Convention 108+ and other initiatives which are aimed to protect data and are not as cumbersome as GDPR. People must be educated about protecting their personal data and how it should be achieved. Early education in e-literacy plays an increasingly important role in protecting individuals online.
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There is too much focus on policy in the discussion whereas infrastructure also needs a lot of attention. The development of policy should go hand in hand with the development of infrastructure that will enable smooth implementation of developed policies. Personal data protection policies must be incorporated into the business models of private sector.
Youths are the fastest-growing demographic on the internet and those who develop the future of the digital world. We aim to engage participants from different regions with a focus on Internet ethics. By interacting with participants of different cultures, races, and experiences, we expect to discuss and develop an ethical understanding of the Internet in order to achieve digital inclusion. We expect to come up with a youth statement with practical examples and suggestions after the discussion on the following questions.
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What are the major factors leading to the low engagement of youth in IG and how can we tackle this problem to ensure better participation?
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How can including youth from all backgrounds help contribute to the development process of Internet ethics and policies?
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What role can policies and best practices play in creating a cyber environment that promotes positive digital citizenship, and cyber wellness among young Internet users?
The session focused on how youth engagement in Internet governance can be improved, with a highly interactive discussion on how different stakeholders could help in sustaining and supporting youth engagement in Internet governance by providing different kinds of opportunities available for youth in the sphere and different levels of multiple exposures for youth.
A theme that was created in the discussion was that there is more interest in engagement than opportunities. It was suggested that low engagement of youth is not the problem, but rather the lack of opportunity, recognition, trust, and information available for youth to be engaged. The speakers and participants agreed that there needs to be a focus on developing capacity building programs on a national level, while still having a global perspective, in order to narrow down the lack of knowledge and awareness of the youth. For example, the Youth IGF Summit held prior to the main Internet Governance Forum leveraged the perspective of youth from all around the world to present specific messages on various topics to the IGF.
Moreover, we also need to foster a more sustainable approach to support capable youth in IG and explore ways to build their capacity. Many indicated that youth only navigate in the IG space within their own bubble, however, this bubble can be eliminated by connecting youth with other stakeholders to ensure there is continuous engagement. Some pointed out that economic barriers for youth initiatives is one of the major factors that determine whether they can engage or attend in the Internet governance events or the policy-making process. However, this should not be a problem if other community members from different stakeholder groups recognize the values of the opinions or the contributions of the youth as different roles in the community.
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Youth programs or initiatives in Internet governance must be designed in a way that enables multiple exposures for youth. To ensure the sustainability of youth participation and continuous engagement in the Internet governance ecosystem, platforms or channels should be established to network and connect community members among and between stakeholder groups.
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The IGF, youth groups or other organizations should engage and work with traditional youth organizations that are open to all people regardless of a person’s religion or gender, such as YMCA, in order to be more inclusive.
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Internet organizations and platforms, such as IGF, ISOC, ICANN, should provide more job opportunities or positions for youth in Internet policy-making in order to integrate the values, interests, and opinions of the younger generations.
- The IGF must address the issue of poor harmonization and coordination between the existing Youth initiatives or Movements. For example, by reevaluating the criteria of forming a local Youth IGF.
Youth initiatives from all around the world were also addressing the session issues during the workshop, regarding the difficulties they are facing like lack of funding in supporting the projects or the capable youth to attend the Internet governance events, opportunities to continuously engage in the Internet governance ecosystem or to return to the policy-making process from time to time with the lowest barriers caused by economic or financial reasons, etc. These youth initiatives include NetMission.Asia, Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy (APIGA), iFocus (A Hongkong-based program for high school students organized by Chinese YMCA), Youth4IG Mentorship Programme, NetThing Australia, Youth IGF Summit, Youth Observatory, Digital Grassroots, etc. Some of the attendees of the workshop who addressed similar issues with the perspectives of their own regions were from the Global South. For example, they have pointed out the situations or the cases in their regions, such as Latin America and Central Asia, in terms of the lack of funding, opportunities, and awareness in the community, etc.
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Youth programs should enable multiple exposures for youth.
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Other stakeholders and Internet bodies should identify and recognize the role and contributions of youth and support youth through employment or providing other opportunities.
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Youth must take the initiative to set up more IGF remote hubs to engage youth at national or regional levels to engage more youth and contribute to the policy-making process.
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There must be more media reporting by the IGF and media in general on youth activity in Internet governance.
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Youth should connect with members of different stakeholder groups to develop strategies for capacity buildings for youth to narrow down the knowledge gap identified.
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There must be pressure on other stakeholders to listen to youth and to integrate the opinions of youth in the projects, plans or policies.
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IGF should push to add more resources for youth, such as on digital literacy, etc., in order to achieve digital inclusion.
Beginning of session:
Male: 30, Female: 37
Middle of session:
Male: 41, Female: 55
End of session:
30 Male, 42 Female
Online participants:
19
Onsite, there was 37 female at the beginning of the session, 55 during the middle of the session, and 42 female at the end of the session. The number of female participants online was 18
To truly maximize youth participation and address the issue of inclusion, the youth did not see gender as a barrier or a limiting factor for youth engagement in Internet governance at this stage.
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Official website of NetMission Academy: http://netmission.asia
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Social media handles of NetMission Academy: Facebook nma.asia | Twitter @netmission | Instagram @netmission
- Semlani, Mili. (November 27, 2019). Youth in IG for Internet Ethics and Digital Inclusion. DigitalWatch Observatory. Retrieved from https://dig.watch/sessions/youth-ig-internet-ethics-and-digital-inclusion.
1. Local-level legislation and policies: What is the character of the current legal vacuum, and which are possible solutions for enhancing women's protection against hate speech online, at the local level?
2. Solutions at the platform level / policies directed to platforms: what have been the outcomes of national or regional initiatives directed to platforms to curb hate speech, such as the NetzDG or the EU Code of Conduct? How to evaluate those policies in comparison with private regulation developed by platforms themselves, or new developments such as Facebook's External Oversight Board?
3. Algorithmic filtering: Is preemptive filtering an effective tool to tackle gender-based hate speech online? Or is overcensorship an inevitable outcome? What does experience suggest?
An effective online content governance framework that balances freedom of expression and freedom from misogynistic speech continues to be a
policy challenge for gender inclusion. This workshop aimed to bring initial insights from an inter-country research project exploring legal/institutional/socio-cultural responses to tackle online hate speech against women in Brazil and India, in order to trigger an informed debate and discussion in this emerging policy area. The session aimed to discuss online sexism with a special focus on gender-based hate speech by speaking to the following three issues:
i) Legal response to address hate speech
ii) internet intermediary policies
iii) role of automated tools to address these issues in online environments.
Audience questions sought perspectives on whether we can have a global definition for such issues and if anything can be done at the international level. Another brought up the trend of young women distancing themselves from feminism as a descriptor as it is deemed to
be "annoying" by their (male) peers. The issues of freedom of speech and expression within the LGBTIQ community were also addressed. The panel
ended with reflecting on how to balance freedom of speech and expression with the right to be free from violence.
The session was organized by two organizations from the Global South working on a joint research about sexist speech, InternetLab (Brazil) and IT for Change (India). This research will evolve in the next 2 years.
Christophe Speckbacher spoke of the recommendation of the committee of ministers of the Council of Europe, the first international instrument that discusses sexist speech. For instance, it recommends the use of gender-neutral language across all official documents. It additionally also has a call to ban sexism in media and advertisement.
3 participants discussed solutions within the national contexts.
Mariana Valente (InternetLab, Brazil) highlighted that naming the act is central to speaking about violence. There is a taxonomy of words used for violence against women and there are clear disadvantages to not having a clear definition to combat sexist speech online, or a definition of "misogyny".
The Indian experience also points to the patchwork of laws that have to be resorted to, in the absence of a sexist hate speech law, and are inadequate to cover the issue. Concerns of legislative additions that will obligate intermediaries to automate filtering may lead to censorship.
Neema Iyer from Pollicy (Uganda) shared insights from the African contexts where countries share a range of copycat laws and that in fact criminalize women instead of protecting them against online violence.
Speckbacher spoke of the importance of including rules against sexist speech in international instruments.
It was a session about sexist violence, so gender was an integral part of it.