Session
Organizer 1: Alexander Malkevich, Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
Organizer 2: Lydia Mikheeva, International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions (AICESIS) || Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
Organizer 3: Nikita Volkov, Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
Speaker 1: Alexey Maltsev, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 2: Amir Alaoui, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Nayla Abi Karam, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Chahrazed Saadi, Private Sector, African Group
Speaker 5: Dramane Traoré, Civil Society, African Group
Alexander Malkevich, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Lydia Mikheeva, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Nikita Volkov, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Round Table - Circle - 90 Min
1. Acute problems of data economy development in the modern world.
2. Reasons and pursuits of government requirements for transnational IT companies towards data localization and creation of data centers.
3. Transparency issues with methods and purposes of personal data collection, storage, and processing carried out by transnational IT companies.
4. Prospects of designing unified global regulations on data flow and data storage: a utopic dream of a consensual solution vis-à-vis a sensible perspective.
5. Mechanisms mitigating the negative impact of the national regulations on Internet fragmentation.
Connection with previous Messages: Message 1. Economic and Social Inclusion and Human Rights
• Adequate enabling environments (e.g., policies, legislation, institutions) need to be put in place at the national, regional and global levels to foster inclusive, just, safe, resilient and sustainable digital societies and economies.
• Stakeholders have a joint responsibility in ensuring that digital transformation processes are diverse, inclusive, democratic and sustainable. Commitment and strong leadership from public institutions need to be complemented with accountability and responsibility on the part of private actors.
• Agile regulatory frameworks – at the national, regional and, where possible, global levels – need to be put in place to outline rules, responsibilities and boundaries for how public and private actors behave in the digital space.
Message 2. Universal Access and Meaningful Connectivity
• While access to the Internet must be supported, it also must be ensured that the open Internet access goes hand in hand with infrastructure deployment - especially needed in the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states.
• Competition was identified as a highly desirable characteristic of the Internet across the various participants representing diverse stakeholders. Competition was welcomed in every aspect from connectivity, creation of inclusion, accessibility, small-players, geographically (Global South) etc.
Message 3. Emerging Regulation: Market Structure, Content Data and Consumer Rights and Protection
• The complex interplay between the market and society is being reshaped by online platforms. Online platforms continue to gain power in the digital world, generating high impact throughout the globe, especially in the Global South. There is no one-size fits all approach as impacts may be positive or negative, depending on the local reality.
• There is a necessity to strengthen the multistakeholder approach, in order to be truly inclusive and to develop effective policies that respond to the needs of citizens, build trust and meet the demands of the rapidly changing global digital environment. The most powerful stakeholders - governments and private companies - are responsible for ensuring that civil society actors are able to meaningfully contribute to these processes.
• More awareness should be raised about the interplay between big platforms, competition, and consumer rights, among both consumers and global, regional or national antitrust regulators. Antitrust regulation could incorporate the concept of public interest, addressing the issue of market power and concerns about fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of speech. Tailored approaches like pro-ethical design in regulation should also be considered.
• In the debate on digital sovereignty and digital autonomy, more focus needs to be placed on the individual autonomy of Internet users within the digital realm.
Message 5. Inclusive Internet Ecosystems and Digital Cooperation
• A positive vision for the future of the Internet has to draw together the strands of core values across technical principles, human rights, access and openness, transparency, and rule of law, as well as economic considerations. This can only be done in an inclusive multistakeholder manner, where the interests of all actors can be addressed.
• While the Internet contributes to social, cultural and economic growth, questions of governance, accountability, misuse, trust and access still exist. As the Internet cannot be dealt with from a one-dimensional perspective, collaborative, equitable and inclusive Internet governance is imperative and requires well-structured coordination and consolidation.
Message 6. Trust, Security, and Stability
• The development and implementation of cyber norms should include the views of all stakeholders (including victims, first responders, and frontline defenders) and address meaningfully their needs and responsibilities. Processes need to be based on research and analysis which include these communities.
• The dialogue on industry security standards needs to be broadened with more stakeholders, including industry, regulators, standardization organizations. Places like the Geneva Dialogue or the IGF provide a platform to bring them together.
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Targets: Excessive national digital regulations inhibit Internet fragmentation by increasing the costs for businesses to operate in the local markets. Although restrictive national policies in the digital services domain may be aimed at improving data privacy and cyber security, most of the time, they turn into protectionist barriers that effectively discourage foreign investments and distort the interoperable digital space and Internet infrastructure in general. Therefore, along with the Internet fragmentation process, the UN SDG 9 “Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation” comes under fire and is being compromised.
Description:
The digital economy is a dynamically growing global industry. As per various estimates, the digital economy as a constellation of online platforms and services currently accounts for 4.5-15.5% of global GDP.
Data is the lifeblood of the modern global digital economy. Digital trade and cross-border data flows are expected to continue growing faster than the overall growth rate of global trade. Cross-border data sharing has long been essential for developing internet-based services and e-commerce. Nowadays, it is even more crucial for the economic growth and development than before, as all technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, e.g., artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), and blockchain, are exceptionally reliant on accessing and processing high-quality data that usually resides in more than one territory.
Yet despite the economic benefits of flexible regimes for cross-border data-flows, data localization requirements, e.g., laws, standards, or policies that mandate that data be stored within a geographical territory and act as barriers to this type of international data sharing, are on the rise globally, slowing technological innovation dissemination and limiting positive societal impact. When unjustified, data localization requirements can prove highly problematic.
Cutting off data flows or making such flows harder or more expensive, i.e., “data protectionism,” puts both foreign firms and local SMEs highly reliant on cloud computing at a disadvantage. It becomes difficult to access high-quality data at scale, upon which technological development relies, and forces multinational companies to create and maintain multiple data centers at high cost in both monetary and environmental terms. Furthermore, data-reliant companies may avoid certain markets altogether due to the increased cost of doing business there. But most importantly, excessive national data-flows regulations lead to the increasing Internet fragmentation, as the erected barriers discourage international business reliance on the complex digital services production chains.
Regardless, certain regulatory differences across countries cannot be eradicated. They are necessary and appropriate as sovereign nations have different values and strategic priorities. However, to allow companies to participate fully in the international data economy, there is a clear need for global policy frameworks to streamline requirements across borders and reduce regulatory overload.
The workshop aims to address the problem of data-flow regulations imposed by governments across the world via a discussion on what a potential balanced global policy framework could look like and how to mitigate the effects of the unavoidable national digital regulations on surging Internet fragmentation.
As a tangible outcome of the workshop, the organizers expect to tailor a set of policy recommendations on the issue of national digital regulations and digital protectionism causing the gradual Internet fragmentation while also raising the awareness of the society and expert community towards the issues discussed at the workshop.
Hybrid Format: The Civic Chamber and AICESIS deem digitalization and the introduction of ICT technologies as one of the top priorities of the organizations’ activities. Therefore, we have substantial experience in organizing and holding public events in a hybrid format.
Firstly, we designate two moderators: one to be present in person on the event site and one to administer the discussion of the speakers participating online via Zoom or other digital communication platforms.
The onsite moderator, Mr. Malkevich, after the opening word, will steer the discussion from topic to topic while delegating the speaking slots of approximately 8-10 minutes to the onsite speakers and then turning to the online speakers overseen by the online moderator, Ms. Mikheeva, and so on. During the free discussion part of the workshop, the same rotation scheme will be implemented, with the provision that the allotted time per speaker will be shorter.
To ensure the best possible experience for both onsite and online speakers, we will collect their reports and topics prior to the event and will devise the speakers’ sequence according to the discussion plan while also trying our best to rotate the onsite and online speakers and on the same time preserving the workshop’s internal logic and coherence.
The online moderator will rely on the IGF online translation chat to collect the questions and relevant topics to be covered by the speakers more extensively during the free discussion part of the workshop. As per the onsite attendees, the onsite moderator will ask for their questions and comments and then forward them to the speakers to discuss.
Finally, the moderators will use their renowned Telegram accounts and chats connected to them and open to all Telegram users (Mr. Malkevich, link: https://t.me/alexandr_malkevich, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, link: https://t.me/oprf_official) to collect additional feedback and questions for the workshop participants.
Usage of IGF Official Tool.