In keeping with the current corona pandemic, the 15. Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the United Nations given the title “Internet as a means of human resilience and solidarity”. The first preliminary debates in phase I have been running since Monday. The official program of the 9th to 17. November’s Phase II event has the motto “Internet Governance in Times of Uncertainty”. Relocated to the network from the southern Polish city of Katowice – hence virtual IGF (vIGF) – the organizers expect about 4000 to 5000 Participants in more than 250 individual events.

Covid – 19 has shaped this year’s IGF program of the mega-conference, not just because of the little surprising decision to move the event completely online. More than two dozen roundtables specifically address the importance of network communication under the conditions of the pandemic. Does inequality intensify in times of stay-home due to a lack of or inadequate infrastructure? What are the disadvantages for students from households without access or hardware? What is the situation in the host country Poland?

Urgent: data protection in times of the pandemic In addition to the enormous spotlight that the pandemic has thrown on the problem that almost 50 percent of the world’s population without network access is, as Vinton Cerf, the “father of the Internet”, said on Tuesday, numerous events also look at the question of whether data protection can take a back seat in times of the health crisis.

The European Fundamental Rights Agency (EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, FRA) takes a close look at the topic of health data and AI on the occasion of the pandemic and the corona apps that have grown out of it. If you want, you can also attend the Chinese event on the same topic. With the connection of health data and AI, the FRA bridges the gap to the second major topic of many workshops: How should companies and governments regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

The importance of standard setting in the fully automated world is also important Host, UN Secretary General António Guterres recognized. In his “Roadmap for Digital Cooperation”, which was completed in the summer, the topic of AI is high up. Apart from political initiatives for more access to the networks, to the corresponding know-how and the appointment of a “Tech Envoy” of the United Nations 2021, the appointment stands of an international committee of experts on the subject of AI as a concrete measure in the timetable.

Role of the UN and the IGF With his digital roadmap and the future Tech Envoy, Guterres has underpinned his intention to turn the United Nations into a platform for international digital politics. How difficult this is is shown by the highly controversial topic of cybersecurity, on which Guterres cautiously writes of further exploration of the member states in the direction of “common formulations”.

Especially in the area of ​​cybersecurity, the “multi-stakeholder- Chaos “made good suggestions and at the same time provided an example of how a multi-stakeholder IGF can have an impact. The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC), which is active at the IGF, has developed a number of standards in broad consultations, including those for the protection of the network’s core infrastructures. The latter was taken up by the European Parliament last year and included in the EU’s cybersecurity directive.

In addition, core area protection is now covered by 75 States of the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on cybersecurity of the UN support, said the Dutch government representative Nathalie Jaarsma, Ambassador At-Large for security policy and cyber, at one of the first IGF previous events.

A bit of grassroots in the UN? Wolfgang Kleinwächter, international lawyer, hopes for even more interlinking between the forum, which has previously been decried as a chat room , Member of the GCSC and German internet governance expert, on the upcoming reform of the IGF. In his timetable, Guterres gave the green light to expand the IGF to become IGF +. This development is also the topic of the upcoming IGF, which will be on 25. November treats another two-hour session for the completely open discussion with the potentially several thousand participants.

Kleinwächter sees a few good ideas for the IGF + coming from Germany. The more active participation of parliamentarians, which was started at the IGF 250 in Berlin, makes a lot of sense, he says, because more and more laws are being passed nationally, affecting the development and use of the Internet as a whole. The meeting will be repeated this year. In addition, in a paper that Berlin and the United Arab Emirates have just handed over to Guterres, there are further proposals on how national IGFs can work together with the large IGF and the IGF with the UN bodies and other standard-setting bodies, says Kleinwächter. Realpolitik With all the confidence of the IGF optimists, the great gap between the UN, IGF and Not to forget diplomacy on the one hand and realpolitik on the other. This is highlighted by a panel at the vIGF 2020 on the encryption of the Internet Society. The organization, together with the Global Encryption Coalition, warns of ongoing legislative initiatives worldwide that want to force access to encrypted communications for law enforcement. The contradiction between duplicating keys and unsafe front doors will be explained again to politicians and other IGF participants in the course of the week of the event.

(olb)