IGF 2020 Internet in Crisis Management and Renewal

Information

Session

Time:

Wednesday, 4 November, 2020 - 10:30 to 12:00 UTC

Room:

Room 3

About this Session:

Internet is the lifeline of all communications during the pandemic, keeping the world connected. Is there any stress on Core Internet Values during the crisis? Would there be a greater realization on the significance of these values post-crisis?

DC:

Dynamic Coalition on Core Internet Values

Round Table - Circle - 90 Min

Area:

Trust

Approach:

Business Models
DNS
Freedom of Expression

Description:

Internet is the lifeline of all communications during the pandemic, keeping the world connected. During the crisis and also by way of being the ecosystem for collaboration to discuss recovery and renewal.

Is there any stress on Core Internet Values during the crisis?
Would there be a greater realization on the significance of these values post-crisis?
On another dimension, to what extent did the stakeholders make productive use of the Internet during the crisis?
To what extent could the Internet positively bring together the right actors to design reconstruction and renewal?

Agenda

Welcome and Introduction (5 minutes) Sébastien Bachollet / Olivier Crépin-Leblond
Follow-up on the 6F Framework and the Covid19 Pandemic (30 minutes)
1. Introduction: Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
2. Discussion
Consequences of Covid19 Pandemic on Core Internet Values (30 minutes)
1. Introduction: Olivier Crépin-Leblond
2. ISP Case description: Olga Makarova, Mobile TeleSystems", PJSC MTS
3. Impact in other countries and link to Internet Governance: Sébastien Bachollet
4. Discussion
“Statement on excessive Internet controls” by the IGF Dynamic Coalitions (20 minutes)
1. Introduction: Gregory Name
2. Comments from other DC Leaders
3. Discussion
Conclusion (5 minutes)

Relevance to IG:

This proposal is on a theme that highlights the rapidly expanding importance and significance of Internet Governance.

References

Internet successes and failures to support a world living under COVID19 lockdown
"Open Internet governance: The 6F framework and COVID-19" — by Alejandro Pisanty
“Statement on excessive Internet controls” by the IGF Dynamic Coalitions

Relevance to Theme:

Has the Covid19 Pandemic triggered the need to change Core Internet Values because of the paradigm shift that it has caused in the world?

Organizers:

Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, Internet Society India Chennai Olivier Crepin-Leblond, Euralo, ICANN At Large

Speakers:

Sébastien Bachollet, EURALO Chair - Session Chair
Olivier Crépin-Leblond, ISOC UK England
Olga Makarova, MTS
Gregory Name
Alejandro Pisanty, UNAM
TBC

Onsite Moderator:

Sebastien Bachollet, ICANN

Online Moderator:

Joly MacFie, ISOC NY

Rapporteur:

Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, Internet Society India Chennai.

SDGs:

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 12: Responsible Production and Consumption
GOAL 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Report

1. Key Policy Questions and related issues:

Is there any stress on Core Internet Values during the crisis? Would there be a greater realization on the significance of these values post-crisis?

On another dimension, to what extent did the stakeholders make productive use of the Internet during the crisis?

To what extent could the Internet positively bring together the right actors to design reconstruction and renewal?

2. Summary of Issues Discussed:

What can we do, how do we use the Internet to foster collaboration in our response to COVID-19? There
is good collaboration in the search for vaccine against the COVID-19 disease, but in other spheres, for
e.g, in using the Internet in the educational setting yet, the tools are not quite right, teachers don't have
the training, the students, they're often uncooperative or outright, you know, misbehaving. We have a
lot of work to do to learn to adapt this technology in a way that makes it more useful. COVID and this
pandemic, it is a gamechanger. The adaptability and the inventiveness of this generation instils hope.
The potentials are enormous.Technical expertise is needed to sort of keep the options open, free and
open source, affordable, apps that don't force you to upgrade your equipment, because of age-old,
decade-old rivalries between large corporates, that's a thing coordinates from the technical expertise
that is brought to the table, it is really important to hear this from the technical experts and formative
influencers and and how the infrastructure operates. It is a resilient infrastructure on the whole. In the
context of increasing traffic, some solutions were identified, that of bringing content closer to
consumers, by global content providers, that of optimizing traffic roles and creating conditions for rapid
expansions of bandwidth. There are cultural aspects as well and due to the COVID crisis there is an
increased need for us to be online, not only as individuals but as communities or as Classes, groups.
There are different ways of using these portals and devices.

3. Key Takeaways:

The Internet is not to be blamed for every evil. In reference to
Internet’s design principles, online behavior could be mapped to offline behaviour. This brought up the
observation that permissionless innovation needs to be tempered, so that we can do something about
harmful behaviors. The Internet is distance erasing, the Internet permits these harms to occur at a
distance. It creates juxtaposition, where there would not be juxtaposition in the real world, but it
creates juxtaposition in the online world, we need to figure out how we apply law enforcement, or other
kinds of norms, in a very different environment than the real world. However, we have to use human
solutions to solve human problems. The technology won't solve them for us.

Previous debates on Core Internet Values included observations that the core Internet values should not
be harmed. But during the pandemic some of these core values, including freedom of expression are
due to perceived necessity.
The pertinent question was: Such compromises occur during Covid as regulatory measures, how
temporary or how do these regulatory measures?
Another observation was that a new central layer, a center of control, must never be created, and it
appears that during this pandemic, there is a certain degree of regulatory control as being put in place
and that also should be temporary.
The Dynamic Coalition, in 2015, proposed that there be a defined, agreed upon list of core Internet
values, and these core Internet values, they need to be the reference standard for global Internet policy.
It was observed that the “Internet Invariants” as listed by the Internet Society are pertinent to Core
Internet Values, and there has been much discussion on this topic as well.

6. Final Speakers:

Sébastien Bachollet, EURALO Chair - Session Chair
Olivier Crépin-Leblond, ISOC UK England
Olga Makarova, MTS
Gregory Name
Alejandro Pisanty, UNAM
Vinton Cerf, Google

7. Reflection to Gender Issues:

Gender Issues did not get addressed in this session.

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IGF 2020 Internet in Crisis Management and Renewal

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