Session
Organizer 1: Natalie Campbell, 🔒Internet Society
Organizer 2: John Morris, Internet Society
Organizer 3: Nermine EL Saadany, 🔒Internet Society
Speaker 1: Natalie Campbell, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Jennifer Brody, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Nermine EL Saadany, Technical Community, African Group
Speaker 4: John Morris, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, Civil Society, Asia-Pacific Group
Nermine EL Saadany, Technical Community, African Group
John Morris, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
John Morris, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A roundtable would be ideal as it is intended both as a briefing event and an interactive brainstorm session, with a lot of participant discussion.
A. How do changes in trade policies pushed by a range of countries threaten cross-border data flows and security online?
B. What role can Internet stakeholders play to protect the Internet from trade policy threats to the Internet?
C. How can we steer countries towards data governance approaches that address privacy and security concerns while protecting the open, globally connected, secure and trustworthy Internet?
D. How can participants work on these issues in their own countries?
What will participants gain from attending this session? This session will highlight a multitude of emerging threats to the free flow of information and security online that are flying under the radar as part of trade negotiations, including at the World Trade Organization and the plurilateral Joint Statement Initiative on E-Commerce. We will explore threats arising from a diverse range of countries and invite participants to consider how those threats might impact the Internet and users in their own countries. Participants will leave the session with a better understanding of the growing threat trade policy poses to the Internet, and new ideas on how to steer countries away from harmful digital trade policy and towards data governance approaches that protect the open, globally connected, secure and trustworthy Internet.
Description:
The Internet’s key proposition - global connectivity - is increasingly at risk as more countries abandon protections for the free flow of information and security online in trade policies about cross border data flows.
Countries worldwide have legitimate concerns about what happens when data leaves their ‘borders’. But recent trade policy debates threaten the ability of the Internet to exist, and pose serious threats to privacy, security, and human rights.
The threats include:
-Leading economies are deprioritizing crucial Internet protections for cross border data flows in trade discussions.
-The World Trade Organization set a 2026 end date to a long-standing moratorium on tariffs of electronic transmissions, threatening the ability of Internet traffic to flow freely.
-Countries are promoting provisions that would undermine encryption in plurilateral trade initiatives, threatening privacy and security.
If we don’t stop trade policy debates from carving up the Internet with digital borders online, we will lose the enormous social, political, and economic benefits that the Internet can offer, and hinder progress on Sustainable Development Goals that depend on the Internet.
We cannot allow the Internet - and its billions of users worldwide - to be victims of misguided trade talks. We cannot allow the Internet to be used as a pawn of trade negotiations. Not at the WTO, nor the Joint Statement Initiative on Ecommerce, nor in bilateral trade agreements. It is vital that the global Internet community find ways to protect the Internet data flows that are under threat, and establish a global norm that people the world over can communicate freely with people in other countries.
This workshop will involve a briefing about emerging trade threats to the Internet, a discussion about current and potential impacts around the world, and an interactive brainstorm discussion on how to prevent trade initiatives from fragmenting the Internet.
The Internet Society hopes this session will prompt new ideas on how the Internet governance community can help stop trade policy changes and initiatives from undermining the Internet. It is vital that we collectively find steps to ensure that data can flow across the Internet without constraints that would undermine vital principles that the Internet needs to exist.
This is not a short term effort, and civil society and other stakeholder groups will need to learn how to influence trade discussions from which they have often been excluded. We anticipate this session will lead to follow-up events or processes among participants who would like to continue monitoring, information sharing, and collaborating towards achieving shared goals to protect the Internet from these specific threats.
Hybrid Format: We will ensure to have both onsite and online moderators to facilitate speakers and guide questions and discussions during the interactive brainstorm part of the event.
We will ensure the speakers are engaging, diverse, and include a lot of opportunity for participants to engage in the conversation both in person and online.
Should there be a large amount of online participants, we may use Zoom breakout rooms to enhance participant interaction during the brainstorm discussion part of the event, and leave time at the end to have various breakout groups share discussion summaries with the full group.