Session
Organizer 1: Colette Wahlqvist, International Media Support
Organizer 2: Magnus Ag, International Media Support
Organizer 3: Nynne Storm Refsing, International Media Support
Organizer 4: Madeline Earp, Independent
Organizer 5: Ramsha Jahangir , Tech Policy.Press
Organizer 6: Ziada Omary Seukindo, JamiiForums
Organizer 2: Magnus Ag, International Media Support
Organizer 3: Nynne Storm Refsing, International Media Support
Organizer 4: Madeline Earp, Independent
Organizer 5: Ramsha Jahangir , Tech Policy.Press
Organizer 6: Ziada Omary Seukindo, JamiiForums
Speaker 1: Birgit Enevoldsen, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Maxence Melo, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Rebecca MacKinnon, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Guy Berger, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 5: Magnus Ag, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 6: Madeline Earp, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Maxence Melo, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Rebecca MacKinnon, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Guy Berger, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 5: Magnus Ag, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 6: Madeline Earp, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Moderator
Madeline Earp, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator
Nynne Storm Refsing, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Rapporteur
Ramsha Jahangir , Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Format
Theater
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: We seek a 90-minute workshop in a theatre layout to bring global, diverse and cutting-edge stakeholders from tech, media, policy and government together with the IGF community celebrating and learning from some of the very best solutions the Internet has to offer. We invite the whole IGF community to join us to learn and take actionable steps to collectively realize this vision of digital public interest infrastructure. Within a tightly moderated format, we would like to prioritize at least 30 minutes of discussion with the audience between our pioneering speakers who have real-life and successful experience building and scaling the solutions the Internet needs.
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: We seek a 90-minute workshop in a theatre layout to bring global, diverse and cutting-edge stakeholders from tech, media, policy and government together with the IGF community celebrating and learning from some of the very best solutions the Internet has to offer. We invite the whole IGF community to join us to learn and take actionable steps to collectively realize this vision of digital public interest infrastructure. Within a tightly moderated format, we would like to prioritize at least 30 minutes of discussion with the audience between our pioneering speakers who have real-life and successful experience building and scaling the solutions the Internet needs.
Policy Question(s)
A. How can multistakeholder collaboration contribute to scaling and replicating best practices on alternative discussion platforms in other geographies, cultures and linguistic communities?
B. What role can good journalism play to bolster information integrity and contribute to building strong digital public infrastructure?
What will participants gain from attending this session? We are organizing this workshop to give attendees some hope and solutions after recent policy changes by major platforms that have set back years of advocacy in Silicon Valley.
We seek to inspire the design of digital public (interest) infrastructure that services and is serviced by high-quality journalism. We want to incentivise the creation of new, community-centered alternatives for the foundation of peaceful societies and ensure internet governance enabling these alternatives is strengthened through strong multistakeholder collaborations.
Those joining our session will have the opportunity to engage with high- and working-level stakeholders from tech, media, policy experts and government across the globe who are using their positions to (re)create a digital space that serves the public interest, not profits nor public figures.
Attendees and speakers will strategize around building digital fora that aim to decrease the harms and increase the benefits from social media in the information ecosystem.
Description:
Alternative platforms like Jamii Forums in Tanzania and Wikipedia have built successful business models where open fact-based debate and knowledge sharing is the goal and the competitive advantage that ensure users and citizens return. No farmer would stop when her field is free of weeds. She would plant good healthy seeds and nurture strong resilient crops. The same goes for information integrity: circulation of mis- and disinformation is reduced while independent media and digital infrastructures that serve the public interest are strengthened - as elaborated in the UN Principles on Information Integrity, the UN Global Digital Compact, the Accra Declaration on Information Integrity and Resilience and the Freedom Online Coalition’s Blueprint on Information Integrity, etc. The local social media platform, JamiiForums, hosts public discussions and journalistic investigations that are moderated and fact-checked under empathetic, public interest principles. Although sensitive to changes in the global donor landscape, the platform is thriving and ranked by Amazon's Alexa as Tanzania’s fourth most visited website (2024). Wikipedia is the fifth most visited website globally (January 2025), according to Semrush. Acknowledging the many great efforts at IGF and beyond countering disinformation, this session focuses on how multistakeholder collaboration around information integrity and digital public infrastructure can leverage existing best practices from alternative platforms, secure continued and strengthened operation and support similar and context specific efforts in other geographies, cultures and linguistic communities. Speakers: Denmark’s Tech Ambassador Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, DENMARK Maxence Melo, Executive Director, JamiiAfrica, founder JamiiForums, TANZANIA Rebecca MacKinnon, Vice President, Global Advocacy at Wikimedia Foundation, USA Guy Berger, Research Fellow, ICT Africa. Former UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, SOUTH AFRICA Magnus Ag, Head of Public Interest Tech, International Media Support, DENMARK Madeline Earp, Independent consultant; Media & public interest tech, UK (moderator)
Alternative platforms like Jamii Forums in Tanzania and Wikipedia have built successful business models where open fact-based debate and knowledge sharing is the goal and the competitive advantage that ensure users and citizens return. No farmer would stop when her field is free of weeds. She would plant good healthy seeds and nurture strong resilient crops. The same goes for information integrity: circulation of mis- and disinformation is reduced while independent media and digital infrastructures that serve the public interest are strengthened - as elaborated in the UN Principles on Information Integrity, the UN Global Digital Compact, the Accra Declaration on Information Integrity and Resilience and the Freedom Online Coalition’s Blueprint on Information Integrity, etc. The local social media platform, JamiiForums, hosts public discussions and journalistic investigations that are moderated and fact-checked under empathetic, public interest principles. Although sensitive to changes in the global donor landscape, the platform is thriving and ranked by Amazon's Alexa as Tanzania’s fourth most visited website (2024). Wikipedia is the fifth most visited website globally (January 2025), according to Semrush. Acknowledging the many great efforts at IGF and beyond countering disinformation, this session focuses on how multistakeholder collaboration around information integrity and digital public infrastructure can leverage existing best practices from alternative platforms, secure continued and strengthened operation and support similar and context specific efforts in other geographies, cultures and linguistic communities. Speakers: Denmark’s Tech Ambassador Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, DENMARK Maxence Melo, Executive Director, JamiiAfrica, founder JamiiForums, TANZANIA Rebecca MacKinnon, Vice President, Global Advocacy at Wikimedia Foundation, USA Guy Berger, Research Fellow, ICT Africa. Former UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, SOUTH AFRICA Magnus Ag, Head of Public Interest Tech, International Media Support, DENMARK Madeline Earp, Independent consultant; Media & public interest tech, UK (moderator)
Expected Outcomes
Denmark will have the Council of the EU presidency between July and December 2025—this role is vital to the stability of Europe and translates EU priorities into concrete and formal decisions.
Furthermore, by bringing two technology companies that put information integrity at the core of their business model—groundbreaking Tanzanian JamiiForums and global giant WikiMedia—with Denmark’s Tech Ambassador, civil society and former UNESCO representation, this workshop will foreground a proactive, multi-stakeholder approach for (re)building an Internet that serves communities.
This workshop will also help inform Denmark’s and the EU Commission’s Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI), a substantial Global South-focused programme aimed at safeguarding human rights in the digital age, where IMS is an implementing partner. More specifically, IMS and the Danish MFA will co-host a milestone DDI conference in Q3 2025 to elevate regional experiences that build resilience and counter disinformation, providing a follow-up forum during Denmark’s presidency.
Hybrid Format: Our onsite moderator is a talented journalist, trained to curate dialogue of balanced discussion. Furthermore, our online moderator will be onsite and there is a strong work relationship between both to incorporate insight of virtual attendees.
As chief organizers, IMS will ensure programming reaches local independent media and their communities—IMS has 260+ partners across Asia, Africa, Europe and MENA—not necessarily part of the IGF community. We will promote and stream on Big Tech platforms and on alternative platforms aligning with the intent of the workshop.
We furthermore acknowledge our responsibility to build rapport between our moderators, rapporteur and speakers well in advance to promote a dynamic and smoothly run session.
Although six speakers, including a moderator, exceeds the recommended limit for a 90-minute session, we hope the MAG will trust us to ensure each speaker has sufficient time to be heard and engage the audience if selected.