IGF 2014

A worrying and widely observed trend is that websites of news media, human rights organizations, critical bloggers, and other individuals or organizations disseminating information have increasingly become targets of illegitimate surveillance, hacking and attacks from various sources ranging from State-based actors to third parties. It falls into an emerging Internet governance concern to explore the digital safety of journalists and its significant human rights implication, particularly on freedom of expression and related privacy protection.

Built on its previous discussion as triggered at IGF 2013, UNESCO takes the occasion to launch the new research which provides a qualitative picture of cases around the world linked to guaranteeing the safety of journalists and other media actors using digital media as well as the guidelines, good practices and policy recommendations on how to respect the right to freedom of expression in the digital environment. The workshop will discuss these outcomes of the publication and how to use them to inform and empower stakeholders on the digital safety protection of journalists and new media actors. It also contributes to Organization’s on-going efforts to implement the UN Inter-Agency Plan on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

Agenda

5’ opening remarks by Chair
10’ Presentation by Ms Jennifer Henrichsen, UNESCO commissioned researcher
5’ Comment by Mr Geoffrey King, Internet Advocacy Coordinator and Digital Security Specialist, Committee to Protect Journalists, United States of America
5’ Comment by Mr Eduardo Bertoni, Researcher, Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) of the University of Palermo, Argentina
5’ Comment by Ms Laura Tresca, Brazil Freedom of Expression Officer, Article 19
30’ Discussions

Transparency reporting by international ICT companies about the legal requests they receive, demanding disclosure of user data or takedowns of content, is quickly becoming common. Less common is transparency reporting by governments, although some countries are beginning to issue rudimentary data about their requests to companies.

The growing prevalence of transparency reports raises important questions about the role of such reporting in the future of Internet governance. What standards are developing around these reports, and how can those standards be internationalized and enforced? How effective are these reports as a governance mechanism for insuring accountability and respect for human rights online by both ICT companies and governments, and how could they be made more effective? How have policy makers and civil society advocates been making use of this new set of data to impact how the Internet is governed, and how could it be used better?

Join us for a panel discussion bringing together academics, advocates and ICT companies to lay out the state of the art in transparency reporting, identify its strengths and shortcomings as a tool for Internet governance, recount the experiences of companies and advocates that have developed or made use of transparency reports to promote human rights and inform Internet governance processes, and propose goals and best practices for the transparency reporting field that we hope to see fulfilled in the future.

Digital technologies and the Internet offer tremendous opportunities for the creation and distribution of content, enabling users to express themselves and reach their audiences in unprecedented ways. At the same time, the advancement of digital technologies relating to identification and rights management has brought to the market increasingly efficient and affordable solutions to deal with potentially illegal material.

However, due to the complexity of the contextual assessments required to determine the legality of such material, these solutions are far from perfect. For this reason, it is crucial that technical solutions be deployed in conjunction with safeguards preventing their abuse, and ensuring the respect of due process, privacy and freedom of expression of the parties involved.

Increasingly, these safeguards depend on the terms and conditions adopted by online platforms, and the procedures through which they operate. Therefore, it seems appropriate to shift the discussion on intermediary liability to a focus on “responsibility”, in order to promote human rights-compliant procedures to content management.

This workshop aims to bring together a variety of stakeholders to discuss the problems associated with content removal in two distinct scenarios: copyright infringement and offensive (including indecent and defamatory) content.

While each of these scenarios presents peculiarities that may call for different approaches, they share in the need to provide a quick and effective remedy for potential victims without unduly restricting human rights. Ultimately, the workshop aims to identify best practices that Internet platforms can adopt to that end.

This panel will launch the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms. Building on the Windhoek Declaration, the African Broadcasting Charter, the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and, most recently, the African Platform on Access to Information, the Declaration is an initiative which aims to define and strengthen standards for the Internet in Africa. It aims to galvanize a movement in support of an Internet environment which is accessible, locally relevant and which supports development.
Already more than 20 civil society organisations are involved in the initiative. A draft Declaration will be launched for public consultation in May 2014, and over the summer there will be a range of multi-stakeholder consultations across Africa. The final Declaration will be launched in September at the IGF and the Highway Africa – the launch is an opportunity to share the Declaration, invite new endorsements and build a wider conversation about how it can be used.

Agenda
5 Mins: Welcome and Opening Remarks by Stephanie Muchai, Article 19 (chair).
10 Mins: Presentation – “Where are we, and where are we going: An African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms” By Edetean Ojo, Media Rights Agenda and Anriette Esterhuysen, Association for Progressive Communications
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Getachew Engida, UNESCO
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Towela Nyirenda Jere, Nepad
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Auguste K. Yankey, African Union Commission
5 Mins: Comment on the Initiative By Ali Hussein Kassim, 3mice interactive media
50 Mins: Audience reactions and discussion. Key Questions are:
**What are the key Internet rights challenges in Africa? Are there elements of the Internet rights struggle that are uniquely African?
**How can we use the Declaration to develop a strong culture of rights and freedoms for the Internet in Africa?
**What are the next steps to institutionalising the Declaration?
5 Mins: Wrap up and invitation to endorse Declaration by Stephanie Muchai

People around the world increasingly depend on digitally networked products and services, from broadband and mobile data services, to devices, to social networks, to cloud computing. These “intermediaries” mediate relationships between individuals and their communities, economies, and governments. It is thus vital that they operate in a manner compatible with the realization of human rights online as well as offline.
Meanwhile the fallout of the Snowden revelations has amplified stakeholder distrust, prompting governments to push for domestic solutions that are not interoperable while the Internet governance ecosystem itself is going through a period of uncertainty. The creation of mechanisms that will allow intermediaries to act in a constructive way for the fostering of human rights is key to improving trust across the global Internet.
The proposed workshop will map and debate the impacts of different kinds of initiatives created to improve the level of accountability of intermediaries relating to human rights concerns, particularly regarding users’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression. From drafting human rights commitments into national legislation, to the creation of multistakeholder groups to propose soft law models, to self-regulatory initiatives, to mechanisms for ranking human rights policies and practices, to transparency reporting frameworks, the workshop will invite speakers and audience to debate the different methodologies from each kind of initiative, as well as their challenges, enforcement models and results.
The workshop aims to achieve a better understanding among stakeholders of how such initiatives may interact with each other and what are their advantages and disadvantages.

Agenda:

1. Panel introductions
Panelists speak briefly about different initiatives and methods for promoting ICT companies’ respect for human rights, highlighting successes, potential opportunities, obstacles and pitfalls of such efforts.

2. Audience input
Audience members and remote participants have an opportunity to highlight other initiatives and to ask questions about the initiatives presented.

3. Follow-up
Fostering comparisons between the initiatives, exploring their peculiarities and impacts, identifying other un- or underdeveloped options.

ICANN sets several important domain name policies that determine what personal information is collected, published, or otherwise shared about Internet domain name registrants. ICANN’s WHOIS policy, its Registrar Accreditation Agreement, and other policies become a global standard for the handling of personal data about Internet users. What obligation does ICANN have to align its policies with international standards for data protection? How are legal privacy protections treated in ICANN’s policies? As an example, this discussion will pay specific attention to European data protection requirements in comparison with ICANN policy. What role do law enforcement and data protection officers play in developing ICANN policies that address the treatment of personal data.

Internet intermediaries play a unique role in linking authors of content and audiences. Given their role in capturing, storing, searching, sharing, transferring and processing large amount of information, data and user-generated content, the actions of these actors may either protect or jeopardize end user rights to free expression. This role is particularly prominent in the cases of search engines and Internet-service providers (ISPs), hosting providers, cloud computing services, online social networks and media houses.
This session will be an opportunity to present and discuss the results of a brand new research project on Internet intermediaries, commissioned by UNESCO, Open Society Foundation and the Internet Society. This report is using a case study methodology to provide insights on how Internet intermediaries - including search engines, social media and ISPs – address freedom of expression issues across a range of jurisdictions, circumstances, technologies and business models.
This workshop aims to trigger discussion on the outcomes of this research and to contribute to identifying principles for good practices and processes that are consistent with international standards for free expression. The launch of the UNESCO-OSF-ISOC findings and outcomes of the discussion will inform various actors, including Internet intermediaries and other stakeholders, and will also contribute to developing a set of good practices applicable across different regions.

Agenda

5’ Openning remarks by Chair Mr Guy Berger, Director for Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, UNESCO
10’ presentation by Ms Rebecca MacKinnon, commissioned leading author of the research on Internet intermediaries
5’ comment by Mr Jan Malinowski, Head of Information Society Department, CoE
5’ comment by Ms Lillian Nalwoga, researcher of CIPESA, Uganda.
5’ comment by Ms Avri Doria, Research consultant on Internet Architectures and Governance
5’ comment by Mr Patrick Ryan, ‎Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Counsel, Free Expression and International Relations at Google Inc.
5’ comment by Ms Ceren Unal, Bilkent University Faculty of Law, Turkey
5' Mr Jean-Jacques Sahel, vice president of ICANN in Europe
50’ Discussions