Session
Avoiding Internet Fragmentation
Digital Sovereignty
ISOC Brazil
Pedro de Perdigão Lana, ISOC Brasil, Technical Community, GRULAC Laurianne-Marie Schippers, CEPI FGV Direito SP (Center for Education and Research on Innovation - São Paulo Law School), Academia, GRULAC Raquel Gatto, NIC.br and ISOC Brazil, Technical Community, GRULAC Ana Paula Camelo, CEPI FGV Direito SP (Center for Education and Research on Innovation - São Paulo Law School), Academia, GRULAC
Pedro de Perdigão Lana, ISOC Brasil, Technical Community, GRULAC Laurianne-Marie Schippers, CEPI FGV Direito SP (Center for Education and Research on Innovation - São Paulo Law School), Academia, GRULAC Raquel Gatto, NIC.br and ISOC Brazil, Technical Community, GRULAC Ana Paula Camelo, CEPI FGV Direito SP (Center for Education and Research on Innovation - São Paulo Law School), Academia, GRULAC
9.b
10.6
16.10
16.8
Targets: As mentioned earlier in the proposal, debates related to digital sovereignty, today, are still very much linked with the points of view of the global north (mainly the European ones). In that sense, the proposal aims to bring into the IGF a different perspective, focused on a developing country in the Global South (which will nonetheless still maintain relations with the different regional perspectives of digital sovereignty). Having a space to present the research at the IGF is an opportunity to (i) value the country's research and innovation areas (linked to SDG target 9.b); (ii) value its perspective and understanding of the topic under discussion, being able to provide subsidies for different opinion makers (linked to SDG target 10.6); (iii) recognize the importance of research carried out in these countries, increasingly encouraging their participation in global governance institutions (linked to SGD target 16.8); and (iv) allow the research to be widely disseminated, facilitating access to knowledge that would often be niched in just one country (linked to SGD target 16.10)
This will be a presentation of the preliminary results of an ongoing project. After presenting what was achieved until the IGF, we will open for feedback from the audience for 15 minutes, while also providing an email for suggestions on what could be added or changed to improve the quality of the investigation.
The debates regarding digital sovereignty are currently a “hot topic” in international and intergovernmental Internet Governance debate forums. In addition to the increasing control of the Internet by a few multinational technology companies and the effect that this phenomenon has on the private and public sectors, new regulatory moves or announcements from the European Union, China, India, Russia (the BRICS, more broadly) are demanding an adequate understanding of the subject. Traditional entities of the Internet Governance ecosystem are prioritizing this discussion, as well as globally relevant institutions - such as European Union bodies, to subsidize legislation that advocates for an European digital sovereignty. In the same sense, sovereignty in cyberspace and Internet fragmentation have also become reiterated themes in all the most recent global IGFs, being directly connected with the theme of the IGF 2019 (“One World. One Net. One Vision”) and becoming an umbrella theme of the workshops in 2022 (“Avoiding Internet Fragmentation”), and also even emerging as a plenary session at ICANN 75 (“Internet Fragmentation, the DNS, and ICANN”). Most of the 2022 national, regional, and youth forums also addressed the issue in their agendas. The MAG also created a Policy Network in Internet Fragmentation in 2022 and renewed this effort in 2023. In this sense, the purpose of this proposal is to present preliminary results of the ongoing research project entitled “Digital sovereignty: for what and for whom? Conceptual and political analysis of the concept from the Brazilian context”. Considering that, currently, much of what is discussed about digital sovereignty is focused on the realities of the global North, the project seeks to qualify the academic and public policy debate on digital sovereignty by presenting a different point of view, starting with an analysis from the Brazilian context, exploring its socio-technical dimensions and technological and legal challenges. The importance of understanding the Brazilian perspectives and role in the context of discussions on digital sovereignty is due to its constant presence and action in matters of the Internet and digital environment governance. For instance, it is possible to mention the development of its Civil Rights Framework for the Internet in Brazil (“Marco Civil da Internet”), its General Data Protection Law (“Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais”), as well as the development of Bills that aim to regulate the fight against disinformation and misinformation and deal with the regulation of social media platforms - as is the case of PL 2630/2020, much discussed in the last few months. Therefore, the ongoing project seeks to conceptually and empirically identify how sovereignty imaginaries are constructed based on Brazilian stakeholders’ narratives from different sectors in public documents, taking into account legal, social, economic, and political implications connecting the local, regional, and global levels.
The session will feature interaction at the table and with the audience. The panel will feature a panelist who will discuss the implications of the preliminary research findings for the international debate, and the audience will be able to participate via an online questionnaire. The online questionnaire will allow both groups - onsite and online - an equal opportunity to make their points. If there are more questions than time, moderators will select a few or group similar ones together. After the event, the questions will be shared with the research team and a response can be sent to those who have left a contact.
Report
Objective of the session:
The session aimed to present the preliminary results of a research project resulting from a partnership between CEPI FGV Direito SP and the Brazilian Chapter of Internet Society (ISOC Brazil), and partly funded by Internet Society Foundation. The project seeks to conceptually and empirically identify how digital sovereignty notions are constructed based on Brazilian stakeholders' narratives from different sectors in public documents, taking into account legal, social, economic, and political implications connecting the local, regional, and global levels.
Presentations
Raquel Gatto mentioned that the biggest threat to the Internet is the phenomenon of splinternet - the fragmentation/division of the global network, when there is no longer the use of the Internet common protocols - which can derive from different approaches, such as those related to infrastructural challenges, technical challenges, matters of national security, among others, including the facet of digital sovereignty, the main subject studied in the research project.
Flávio Wagner brought that the specific context of Brazil is that of a country that has already been implementing different regulations on the Internet, such as the Internet Bill of Rights (Marco Civil da Internet) and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD), in addition to discussing new regulations related to AI, misinformation, digital platforms, cybersecurity, among others. Aspects related to sovereignty are being used as justification for the creation of these norms and other public policies, but there are no shared notions or definitions of what sovereignty in the digital sphere would mean, which justifies this attempt to map the narrative on digital sovereignty.
Ana Paula Camelo brought the methodology used in the research, as well as the current activities that are being carried out, such as the mapping of public documents from different stakeholders that contain notions of digital sovereignty, interviews, and the elaboration of a course on the theme. Also, Ana Paula highlighted some of the preliminary findings of the research: (i) in the Brazilian context, written documents don’t specifically use the term “digital sovereignty”. Therefore, the research team decided to look for broad notions that in some way explored the relationship between sovereignty and the digital environment, the Internet, regulations and discussions about network fragmentation; (ii) diverse understandings are at stake when discussing digital sovereignty (such as self-determination, the power to regulate, national security, etc.), as well as different perspectives (such as political, legal and technical lenses).
Questions and debates
The audience shared some questions and concerns with the speakers. The highlights are:
(i) try to take a historical approach on Brazil’s prior investment in digital sovereignty (such as the production of technological equipment and the development of open source code), to understand if that past has correlations with the current developments.
(ii) in addition to discussing the notions of the expression “digital sovereignty”, it is important to also question the term itself, to understand whether it makes sense or whether it is just used as a buzzword. It is important to discuss such a term since there is no country absolutely independent in relation to others in some matters.
(iii) try to understand the different impacts that the use of the term “sovereignty” can have on the digital sphere, especially considering that some discourses and practices relating to the “exclusive” feature of political and legal senses of sovereignty can hurt the fundamental aspects of the functioning of the Internet.
The speakers and members of the research project will take the comments and questions raised into consideration in the further development of the project.