APNIC participated at the 2018 Internet Governance Forum (IGF 2018) in Paris, France from 12 to 14 November 2018.
The 13th annual meeting of the IGF welcomed more than 3,000 delegates from 143 economies who participated at 171 sessions both onsite and remotely on the main theme, ‘Internet of Trust’. There was also an IGF Village, with 56 booths representing the government, private sector, civil society and technical communities.
For the first time, the IGF was presided at the highest level of both the host country, the government of France and the United Nations Secretariat. UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron both spoke at the Opening Ceremony, with President Macron announcing the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, a framework for regulating the Internet and fighting against cyberattacks, cyberthreats and hate speech.
It was also the first time the IGF was co-located with two other events as part of Paris Digital Week, the inaugural Paris Peace Forum and GovTech Summit.
APNIC activities:
- Paul Wilson and Pablo Hinojosa participated at a consultation meeting about the proceedings of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation.
- Paul made the opening remarks at the ‘Technological innovation and Internet Governance Rules‘, a session organized by the Chinese government following the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. Paul noted the importance of maintaining the open and neutral nature of the Internet, and continuing such discussions in forums such as the IGF.
- Sylvia Cadena co-organized the main session on ‘Technical and Operational issues, Content Blocking and Filtering: a challenge for Internet growth‘ on the impact of content filtering and blocking on Internet infrastructure, with perspectives from regulators, civil society and youth representatives.
- Pablo participated as a panellist in the session, ‘The role of the regulator in promoting the deployment of IPv6‘ and ‘Before you know it, Internet governance will be irrelevant‘, together with Geoff Huston, who participated remotely.
- ISIF Asia 2018 Gender Empowerment and Innovation award winner, Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation, and Community Networks award winner, Community Cellular Networks in Rural Aurora, joined FIRE Africa and FRIDA winners at the IGF 2018 Seed Alliance Awards Ceremony.
- Pablo also helped organize the session ‘Whois collected, disclosed and protected: CERTs viewpoint‘ on access to whois data by CERTs and other players in the Internet ecosystem in light of new privacy regulations and whois policies being developed by communities around the world.
- Bhadrika Magan and other RIR representatives from the RIPE NCC and ARIN hosted a booth, answering questions on the role of the RIRs and the number community in the Internet ecosystem.
- APNIC Executive Council member Rajesh Chharia has been appointed to the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), while Sylvia Cadena continues her tenure on the MAG for another term.
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