Concluding Breakout Session: Security, Safety, Stability & Resilience

As the 3 groups discussed, the came up with a series of recommendations and suggestions for the way forward:

Stability & resilience; Technology, Industry and Trade

• Most of the sessions there was a call to work on more clearer definitions and common terminology, that help build bridges among different stakeholders across different jurisdictions. In many of these discussions the nounces between the diplomatic language, the technical language, and the policy language can make dialogue and consensus building quite challenging. It seems that some of the issues are conceptualized in a different manner, and this causes challenges in identifying the way forward.
• There is a need for more clarity on how the definitions are then applied as part of domestic policies, translating measures into practical implementation.
• While building such common terminology, there is a need to include different professions in the conversation – not only diplomats but economists, lawyers and policymakers, because internet governance today has implications in a broad range of areas. Therefore, we need to acknowledge the role of other disciplines in creating common ground and bridging between technologists, policymakers, lawyers, and diplomats.
• Most of the sessions also call for a deeper understanding of the different roles that different stakeholders can have to advance the discussion on these issues and identify possible ways to address them. Using specific concrete cases to run scenarios for effective collaboration might be a good way to tackle complex issues in a more practical way.
• A recurring theme is the need to assess the impact and meaning of the norms discussion. While recognizing that the UN GGE 2015 cyber norms were an important consensus achievement, questions arise as to their meaning and impact in practice and the need for more norms. "Norms" and associated terms in the "norms" have different meanings to different stakeholders, and more attention needs to be paid to the relevant context of the way they were developed to enable better understanding of their scope and purpose. It appears that there are sometimes duplicative discussions about norms and this is a challenge. Some have voiced the concern that the new initiatives that are emerging to create new norms dilute their significance - multiplicity of norms reduces their legitimacy.
• Civil society has limited resources to participate and therefore it is important not to create multiple parallel discussions. The IGF has a track record of an inclusive multistakholder open access discussion that enables civil society to participate effectively.
• There is a need for domestic "legal" capacity building, alongside technical capacity building, to enable promoting trust and lowering legal uncertainty. In addition, there is a need to promote certainty, bridge the gaps between technologists and other communities and facilitate cooperation through a robust technical-legal discussion about cybersecurity.

Safety & Security

• Following on the need for clearer definitions and terminology, the group also mentioned how important was across many of the sessions during the week, to build trust among companies, countries and communities, understanding from where threats are coming from and how to measure the actions of the stakeholders involved to tackle the problem. 
• More technical training and education is required, to supports law enforcement to stay tune with the latest technology developments, warning on avoiding reliance on private sector companies from the security industry, so that prevention, investigation and remedy are not privatized.
• A strong point was made about the need for curated/accurate information about security and safety best practices on local languages to encourage collaborations, to expand support networks for security and safety professionals around the world and build trust. 

Internet Ethics & Human Rights

• On a similar way than the other 2 groups, the group also mentioned how important clearer definitions are to build consensous and move forward. The group discussed concrete examples of online harassment, impersonation, bullying, online violence and other concrete examples of criminal behaviour and its manifestations online. A point was made about how those discussions can be very personal, and empathy is a very important part of understanding the impact for the victims.
• A very important point was made about how to incorporate diversity into the discussion around values and ethics, as they don't mean the same or are expressed the same in different societies or they are not valued the same in different corners of the world.
• Balanced responses should be designed by putting people first, carefully consider the rights of the individual, the legal framework, the jurisdiction and impact across jurisdictions and the ethical considerations around such response. How a state or a company arrives to such response are as important as the response it self (dialogue, inclusion, meaningful stakeholder engagement). This is of particular importance on the application of online moderation strategies.
• These responses should also consider how to balance the kind of Internet we want, an open and free space, against the need to address the challenges posed by harmful content, hate speech, criminal behaviour and its manifestations online, etc. 
• A point was made about consumer responsibility to chose better what platform, applications and devices they use and how they engage to report and remedy issues of concern. Self-regulation was mentioned and the need to raise awareness about how to contain the viralization of harmful content if users think before they share. 
• A concrete suggestion to the social media platforms, to use a similar mechanism they currently have to target advertising but instead presenting facts, definitions and information to support conversations on their platforms, to tackle misinformation and disinformation, not only looking for profit.
• It was highlighted that awareness campaigns should be based on solid, technical knowledge to empower the community to use platforms, applications and services to benefit their community, no matter what medium is chosen to produce such materials. Awareness raising should also include information about the legal implications of engaging is such behaviours and understanding its impact.