IGF 2018 WS #319 Regulations for a neutral and open Internet at the age of online platforms

This panel will explore the different regulatory frameworks applied to the Internet, to open the discussion on how to think about norms and standards when facing a global, decentralized, social and fast-developing technology.

The session will focus specifically on the the rise of the digital platform economy and its challenges. Indeed, over the last two decades, a few online platforms have managed to become some of the most powerful organisations in the world. Those platforms have eased citizens’ access to information, cultural goods, as well as opened up new business opportunities and reduced transaction costs. They have managed to do so because of their distinctive model of production that breaks with the paradigms of the traditional economy : they generate large flows of data, host engaged communities, optimizes externalities and govern ecosystems. These features have even allowed few platforms to acquire a phenomenal influence over Internet users, individuals and professionals alike. Yet, their development has raised various concerns mostly related to the asymmetry of information and power between them and those who rely on their infrastructures to get the relevant information, good, or service. Because of this, there are growing calls within the policy realm and beyond to develop new means to hold them accountable to society. Regulators are currently ill-equipped to fulfil this duty. This session also aims at encouraging various stakeholders to share their ideas on how to upgrade our regulatory frameworks to hold online platforms more accountable.

We will start by understanding the challenges and different perspectives when applying a traditional State centered regulation. From Brazil’s Marco Civil that introduced the internet’s first bill of rights to the multilateral legislation for data protection in Europe, we have a myriad of regulatory frameworks from around the world to draw some conclusions on its challenges and opportunities.

The panel will follow with a second framework that can come as a support to the traditional state centered regulation. A data-driven regulatory method based on an increased data transparency, a stronger access to information and a user-empowered approach. This crowdsourced, multi-actor approach allows traditional regulators to tap on the collective intelligence and the available data to set up more flexible, adapted and user-centered norms and standards. Self-regulation encompasses a large number of concepts such as codes of conduct, model contracts, codes of ethics, memorandum of understanding, technical or administrative standards, certification or labelling systems and it is considered by some actors like the most effective tool against harmful and illicit content on the internet. A systematic, self-regulation-based approach is especially interesting as an alternative on highly intrusive regulations, with laws differing across borders and short-term solutions. In this perspective, we could see the Internet as a market that self-regulates itself. The interactions between users- backed by a conduct code, government support and filtering technology- could lead to a form a coasian bargaining eliminating bad externalities and in fine to some sort of walrasian equilibrium of the Internet.

The discussion will end with a more philosophical and sociological alternative to the latter regulatory approaches. A democratic framework or a bottom-up regulation could be presented as an alternative to rigid, state centered, national or private regulatory methods. By empowering users through traditional legislation like the GDPR and by providing tools to better understand the technological interface like data and algorithm transparency, civil society could act as a regulator. The tools put in place by the self-regulation method, could also help civil society to demand for more control or to reverse the power relation established by the platforms. This democratic and bottom-up approach will allow users to take back control of their own data and could set up more adequate and organic guidelines and standards to regulate the uses of the Internet and the behaviors online.

In conclusion, this panel will have drawn a complete picture of the different regulatory methods applied today to the Internet: a traditional state centered legislation, a technological regulation through data, a private self-regulatory vision and a bottom-up approach by civil society.

The moderator will then open the floor for interaction with the public to engage in a discussion about the future of internet regulation.

Agenda:

- Introduction (10 min) by Paula Forteza (Assemblée Nationale)

- State / traditional regulation (10 min) by Chérif Diallo (Senegalese Government)

- Data-driven regulation (10 min) by Sebastien Soriano (ARCEP)

- Private sector perspective (10 min) by Carolyn Nguyen (Microsoft)

- Democratic and collaborative regulation (10 min) by Luca Belli

- Conclusion (10 min) by Theodore Christakis, Professor of Law and member of the French Digital Council

- Q&A and debate moderated by Lucien Castex (ISOC) (30 min)