Session
Organizer 1: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 1: Patrick Day, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Carrillo Eduardo, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Elonnai Hickok, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Carrillo Eduardo, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 3: Elonnai Hickok, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Format
Classroom
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: This session would benefit from a room setup that can facilitate maximal discussion from participants during the discussion, hence the classroom setup. When we have run discussions like this in the past, 60 minutes is an appropriate amount of time to set the scene, share background information, and have a robust discussion.
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: This session would benefit from a room setup that can facilitate maximal discussion from participants during the discussion, hence the classroom setup. When we have run discussions like this in the past, 60 minutes is an appropriate amount of time to set the scene, share background information, and have a robust discussion.
Policy Question(s)
A. What are global trends in network blocking and traffic disruptions? What are the human rights impacts on stakeholders?
B. How can human rights principles guide company decision-making when responding to government demands for blocking & disruptions?
C. What are the risks and trade-offs when pushing back on government demands, including for user rights, company employees in the jurisdiction, and other stakeholders? How might those risks be mitigated?
D. What might be aspects to consider depending on the jurisdiction and global implications of the request?
E. How can stakeholders work to push back on overbroad government demands for traffic disruptions?
What will participants gain from attending this session? Participants will gain a more nuanced understanding of the human rights implications of network and traffic disruptions, human rights principles and frameworks that companies can use to push back on these disruptions to protect the open internet, and relevant tradeoffs. Participants will engage with stakeholders from across the IGF community, so they will learn from cross-sector and cross-regional perspectives.
Description:
While significant attention has been paid to network blocking and internet shutdowns, there’s been less focus on website blocking and service restrictions at lower levels of the ICT stack. For instance, governments in a number of jurisdictions are increasingly ordering private technology companies like Internet services providers (ISPs), domain name system (DNS) providers, content delivery networks (CDNs), and other cloud service providers to disrupt traffic, particularly through methods such as DNS blocking, IP blocking, internet throttling, and website blocking. These disruptions have significant adverse human rights impacts, as documented by numerous stakeholders including the UN, and undermine the resilience and interconnectedness of the global Internet. Companies and civil society organizations can use frameworks based on international human rights principles, such as the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Global Network Initiative (GNI) Principles, to push back on and mitigate the impacts of these demands. This workshop will bring together stakeholders at the IGF for an interactive discussion, anchored by a group of expert discussants and facilitated by GNI, on the types of overbroad government restrictions and demands for disruptions that companies may face, the technical impacts of such orders, trade-offs that companies consider in their responses, how stakeholders can engage collectively to protect rights, and how company decisions might impact people’s human rights. Participants will explore applicable decision-making principles and frameworks, possible considerations and trade-offs, and different types of expertise needed from across stakeholder groups when responding to these government demands in the most rights-respecting way possible. We hope this conversation will facilitate productive connections across stakeholder groups. The session will be facilitated by the Global Network Initiative, and informed by remarks from company and civil society experts from a range of regions.
While significant attention has been paid to network blocking and internet shutdowns, there’s been less focus on website blocking and service restrictions at lower levels of the ICT stack. For instance, governments in a number of jurisdictions are increasingly ordering private technology companies like Internet services providers (ISPs), domain name system (DNS) providers, content delivery networks (CDNs), and other cloud service providers to disrupt traffic, particularly through methods such as DNS blocking, IP blocking, internet throttling, and website blocking. These disruptions have significant adverse human rights impacts, as documented by numerous stakeholders including the UN, and undermine the resilience and interconnectedness of the global Internet. Companies and civil society organizations can use frameworks based on international human rights principles, such as the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Global Network Initiative (GNI) Principles, to push back on and mitigate the impacts of these demands. This workshop will bring together stakeholders at the IGF for an interactive discussion, anchored by a group of expert discussants and facilitated by GNI, on the types of overbroad government restrictions and demands for disruptions that companies may face, the technical impacts of such orders, trade-offs that companies consider in their responses, how stakeholders can engage collectively to protect rights, and how company decisions might impact people’s human rights. Participants will explore applicable decision-making principles and frameworks, possible considerations and trade-offs, and different types of expertise needed from across stakeholder groups when responding to these government demands in the most rights-respecting way possible. We hope this conversation will facilitate productive connections across stakeholder groups. The session will be facilitated by the Global Network Initiative, and informed by remarks from company and civil society experts from a range of regions.
Expected Outcomes
This session is part of an ongoing body of work at GNI exploring the human rights impacts and mitigations for government demands and restrictions across the tech stack using our Across the Stack tool, helps inform rights-respecting practices, research, and advocacy by GNI’s network of over 100 member organizations worldwide. The session will build on these prior GNI learning activities, which already include two tabletop exercises, workshops, and learning calls. This would be our first session specifically focused on these issue areas and questions within this larger work, and from this session, we would publish a blog post or other similar output synthesizing key takeaways.
Hybrid Format: We regularly run hybrid sessions like this. For example, we ran a hybrid workshop most recently at RightsCon. We design the session where we share an overview and experts share framing remarks to everyone, and then often divide participants into discussion groups where participants in the room have their own breakout groups and online participants have their own group(s) with relevant facilitators, and then we come back together across the in-person and online participants to debrief and share learnings. This has worked well and enabled participation from all. If we do not use breakout groups and instead have a full group discussion, we will ensure that online participants are equally considered alongside in-person participants in asking questions and offering remarks.