Event report: Future of the Internet

On 2 November 2022, the High-level multi-stakeholder event on the Future of the Internet brought together representatives from governments and the global multi-stakeholder community to discuss and identify concrete actions to deliver on the principles enshrined in the Declaration on the Future of the Internet (DFI). In addition, the event focused on actions to combat disinformation based on the lessons learned from disinformation campaigns related to the war in Ukraine and the role of the Code of Practice on Disinformation in this regard.

The event, organised by the European Commission in coordination with the European External Action Service and the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, brought over 300 stakeholders together from across the world.  A recording of the event is available under this web link.

The event continued to build on the global momentum of the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet” which was evidenced by the following countries announcing their endorsement of the Declaration: Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino. Countries from Africa, Latin America and the Indo-Pacific region indicated their willingness and readiness to endorse the Declaration in the future.

Morning sessions on the Declaration for the Future of the Internet, and tech for the common good

Ivan Bartoš, Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalisation of the Czech Republic, and Roberto Viola, Director General for DG CONNECT, European Commission, delivered the opening statements, highlighting the importance of a human-centred vision for the future of the Internet and the role of digital technologies in the promotion of peace and democracy. The morning panels saw high-level representatives from different DFI partners come together to emphasise the importance of the DFI Internet as a global call for action to governments and stakeholders to rally behind the DFI principles to ensure an open, global, reliable and trusted internet. Roundtable participants agreed collaboration between like-minded partners on advanced modelling and forecasting based on large data sets would help address challenges faced by governments.

Multi-stakeholder workshops on how to live up to the DFI vision in practice

In parallel to the Ministerial roundtable, four workshops were held based on four different principles of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet, namely: protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, a global internet, inclusive and affordable access to the internet, and multi-stakeholder internet governance. During the workshops, high-level representatives from governments, think tanks, academia, private companies and non-governmental organisations from around the world shared key challenges as well as best practices on matters related to each principle.

A multi-stakeholder report has been produced for each workshop, summarising how the DFI principles can be operationalised in practice:

• Empowering youth to shape their future Internet: online practices and governance models (.pdf)
• Promoting digital literacy to close the digital divide (.pdf)
• Preventing Internet shutdowns and platform-specific restrictions (.pdf)
• Protecting human rights in the age of online platforms (.pdf)

The workshop recordings are now available:

• Empowering youth to shape their future Internet: online practices and governance models.
• Promoting digital literacy to close the digital divide.
• Preventing Internet shutdowns and platform-specific restrictions.
• Protecting human rights in the age of online platforms.

Afternoon sessions focused on the challenges of disinformation

The afternoon sessions focused on the challenges of disinformation and narratives observed in Central-Eastern Europe on Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as the vulnerabilities of online platforms that facilitate the spread of disinformation in the region. The scene setter session gave space to Ministers, European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) researchers and online platforms to provide an overview of the main issues related to disinformation surrounding the war in Ukraine. The main panel revolved around examples of very harmful disinformation on Ukraine spreading on online platforms in Central-Eastern Europe, actions taken by platforms and what further actions should be considered as well as the contribution of the Code of Practice on Disinformation to limit the impact of disinformation and the role of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The conference was closed by Vice President Jourovà who stressed the importance of fighting disinformation on Ukraine and concluded that more needs to be done, in particular by online platforms.

Finally, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan delivered closing remarks, announcing that the United States and the European Commission intend to bring together experts to explore collaboration on research projects that can benefit DFI partners and the global scientific community, promoting secure and privacy-protected sharing of data and artificial intelligence models.