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Issues on the Free Flow of Data, ICT Products and Services in a Digitally Connected World

IGF 2019 Main Session Template [Group 3]

1. Title

Issues on the Free Flow of Data, ICT Products and Services in a Digitally Connected World

2.      Associated Programme Theme(s)

Data Governance (*but cross-cutting)

3.      Brief Description/Objective [in 200 words or less - this should be a high-level ‘marketing’ pitch to participants - i.e. - why should they join the session and what should they expect to get from it?]

The world  is facing a crucial point in time when the flow of data, ICT products and services are subject to scrutiny and international trade enabling the flows is also subject to intensive discussion. While international discussion on how to further facilitate the free flow of data and ICT-related free trade which are indispensable for SDGs-oriented digital innovation and economic growth in every country is ongoing, there are growing concerns about privacy, data protection, intellectual property rights, and security. With the complex background and also taking into account the legislative and enforcement jurisdictions of each state, this main session sheds light on the following questions:

  1. What consensus can be achieved on the free flow of data, ICT products and services in a digitally connected world?
  2.  What is the role of international bodies such as WTO, OECD, WIPO, UNCTAD, and others?
  3. What are the applicable rules?
  4. Are there any conflicts of laws (extraterritorial effects of state actions) and how to solve them?
  5. What are the roles of bilateral or plurilateral trade agreements?
  6. How to ensure the implementation of international rules and principles in each member state?

4. Agenda (2 hours (120 min.))

  1. Introduction: MAG Member (5 min.)
  2. Opening Remarks from the German Government (10 min.)
  3. Reports from this year’s G7 and G20 Chairs (France and Japan) (10 min. each]
  4. Multi-stakeholder Discussion on the Reports (International Organization, Private Sector, Tech Community, Civil Society) (40 min.)
  5. Open Discussion with the Audience (20 min.)
  6. Statements of Commitment from next year's G7 and G20 Chairs (Saudi Arabia and the US) (10 min. each)
  7. Wrap-up: MAG Member (5 min.)

5. Policy Questions [up to 5]

See, 3.

6.     Chair(s) and/or Moderator(s)

To be confirmed.

  • Chair/Moderator

-TBD

  • 2) Online Moderator -Ms. Afia Faith, MAG member

7.     Panelists/Speakers

1) Opening Remarks

  1. -TBD, Germany

2) Reports from this year’s G7 and G20 Chairs

  1. TBD, France (G7 Chair)
  2. TBD, Japan (G20 Chair)

3) Multi-stakeholder Discussion

  1. TBD, International Organization, 
  2. TBD, Tech Community, 
  3. TBD, Civil Society,
  4. TBD, Business Sector,
  5. TBD, Academia,

4) Statements of Commitment from next year's G7 and G20 Chairs 

  1. TBD, the US (G7 Chair)
  2. TBD, Saudi Arabia (G20 Chair]

8.      Plan for in-room participant engagement/interaction?

  First of all, because our session will be “debate-style”, there will be active interaction among expert speakers/panelists and the mood will be set for audience interventions and questions. Put it another way, we will make every single effort to create an atmosphere for active interaction not only among the panelists/speakers but between the panel and the audience.

Second, in order to foster interactive discussion among all participants, there will be the opportunity of open discussion with the audience. We will ask a moderator to pay closer attention to the reaction of the audience during the sessions and involve the audience as much as possible.

9.     Remote moderator/Plan for online interaction? 

Interventions from online participants will be given equal priority as to those from the physical audience. Onsite and online moderator will coordinate closely. To broaden participation, online interaction will rely on the WebEx platform and will also include social media (Twitter and Facebook). Online moderators will be in charge of browsing social media using some hashtags (to be defined). We will try to have online multilingual moderators and a systematic queue.

In addition, we plan to use a “Twitter wall” which can be either a physical monitor at the session or a tag with a Storify-like interface where people can interact with before, during, and after the session. Since we have ever collaborated with Youth IGFs, we will ask Youth IGF volunteers to be part of our team and support our session on this aspect. We are confident that it will introduce dynamism and reinforce the goal of maximizing the opportunities for the involvement of the audience in situ and remote.

10.   Desired results/output? Possible next steps for the work?

The purpose of this main session is to create a place for truly multi-stakeholder and policy-related active dialogue where Chairs of G7 and G20 this year can hand over their outcomes to Chairs of G7 and G20 next year with various opinions and requests from multi-stakeholders based on the results of G7 and G20 summits this year in order to maintain the consistency and continuity of G7 and G20 workon digital economy and trade toward the future. In addition, this main session aims to let them (G7 and G20 Chairs) recognize the importance to actively participate in the global IGF where various multi-stakeholder discussion on Internet-related public policy issues is made.

1. Key Policy Questions and Expectations
  1. Coordination and policy coherence are of fundamental importance to enhance cross-border data flows and create trust among governments, businesses and consumers. How is the articulation of the different processes done today to ensure policy coherence? What are the trends you see, and what are potential roadblocks today?
  2. How can we strengthen that the different regimes and frameworks adopted around the world are compatible and even interoperable in the future? What are your recommendations?
2. Summary of Issues Discussed

Both G20 and G7 Chairs introduced their outcomes and activities on digital economy and trade, especially in relation to the free flow of data accross borders while addressing various challenges including but not limited to privacy and data protection, hate speech and fake news, discrimination, and others.

Speakers from the private sector advocated how important to maintain and facilitate cross border data flows and insisted some restrictive measures like data localization give a great and negative influence on the expansion of digital economy and trade. At the same time, they also recognized the importance of privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity so supported EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). One said the Internet should not be fragmented and strong encryption would be critically important for DFFT. A panelist from the Polish government added the importance of interactions among different regulations and further explained how GDPR takes a balance between the free flow of non-personal data and the protection of fundamental rights while taking the reality of SMEs into account.

A panelist from WTO introduced the history and up-to-date situation of WTO negotiation on E-commerce while also saying that there are various fora to deal with digital economy and trade at present. Another trade-experienced panelist explained the inherently-closed and high-pressured nature of trade-related negotiation with various examples and advised to conduct open and closed discussions in parallel depending on points at issue in order to avoid deadlocks in discussions.

3. Policy Recommendations or Suggestions for the Way Forward

Although there is no single or one-size-fits-all solution, multistakeholder dialogue should be continued while getting both trade-related and data-related stakeholders involved in the dialogue. Especially, in most cases, governments do not understand the reality or up-to-date development of technologies, so the diverse and inclusive discussion among public and private stakeholders would be necessary to move forward harmonization and interoperability for expanding digital economy.

It might be difficult to achieve interoperability in every single point at issue or to reach a consensus on each of different aspects in detail, so the relevant discussion should be aimed at achieving a middle ground in a principle level.

4. Other Initiatives Addressing the Session Issues

The newly released Internet & Jurisdiction Global Status Report 2019 was highlighted as a key policy tool, demonstrating a lack of coordination between regulatory initiatives. According to the Report, only 15% of surveyed stakeholders (governments, companies, IGOs, civil society) say we have the right frameworks and standards in place to address cross-border legal challenges in cyberspace.

When discussing the value of multi-stakeholder cooperation to ensure cross-border data flows and trust, panel discussants suggested concrete actions to support the cross-border internet such as building pathways to support enhanced coordination between actors and policy processes. The role of the new G7 and G20 Chairs the United States and Saudi Arabia, in stepping up to these tasks and building on the efforts of France and Japan as previous hosts were underscored as important.

5. Making Progress for Tackled Issues

As the moderator, Mr. Paul Fehlinger from Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network (I&J) rightly indicated, “the multistakeholder model can provide a pathway into different policy processes around the world from the perspectives of different stakeholders, so that we have the necessary coordination for cross-border data flows in the future” . There are indeed various fora as discussed during the session, but the most important thing is to continue broader multistakeholder dialogue on digital trade while involving decision-makers such as governments and international organizations.

In this regard, unfortunately, we could not invite Chairs of both G7 and G20 next year to the session, so in order to ensure the consistency of digital trade-related multistakeholder dialogue, we will have to invite G7 & G20 Chairs of both 2020 and 2021 if we have an opportunity to hold the similar main session on digital trade at IGF Katwice 2020.

6. Estimated Participation

I guess around 50-100 people participated in our main session (both onsite and online), and about a half of the participants were women.

7. Reflection to Gender Issues

Fortunately, about a half of the speakers were women and they all made various professional and invaluable inputs during the panel discussion. In addition, Ms. Salwa Toko from France, G7 Chair this year emphasized the importance of multistakeholder dialogue and in the context of it, she mentioned a facial recognition and pointed out the necessity of discussing the ethical problem of it since the technology could cause gender discrimination. Further, Ms. Luiza Brandão from Brazil insisted the importance of the diversity of stakeholders when it comes to discussing global coordination on digital trade.

8. Session Outputs
  1. Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network, “I&J Deputy Executive Director Moderates UN IGF Main Session”, December 4, 2019, at https://www.internetjurisdiction.net/event/i-j-deputy-executive-director-moderates-un-igf-main-session .
  2. Konosuke Matsuba (Mercari Inc.), “包摂的なデジタル社会を実現するために必要な国際協調とは何か (What is necessary international coordination in order to achieve an inclusive digital society)”, December 3, 2019, at https://merpoli.mercari.com/entry/2019/12/03/070000 .
  3. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, “インターネット・ガバナンス・フォーラム（IGF）2019の結果―大阪トラックの推進に向け、信頼性のある自由なデータ流通を議論―（Results of Internet Governance Forum (IGF)  2019 – Discussed Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) for the facilitation of Osaka Track）”, December 6, 2019, at http://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01tsushin06_02000193.html .
  4. Japan Network Information Center, “IGF2019フォトレポート（IGF 2019 photo report）”, December 6, 2019, at https://blog.nic.ad.jp/2019/3684/ .