Proposal

APrIGF 2024 Session Proposal Submission Form
Part 1 - Lead Organizer
Contact Person
Ms. Noelle de Guzman
Email
Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) *
deguzman@isoc.org
Designation
Director, Policy and External Engagement
Gender
Female
Economy of Residence
Singapore
Primary Stakeholder Group
Technical Community
List Your Organizing Partners (if any)
Liza Garcia, Executive Director, Foundation for Media Alternatives, lgarcia@fma.ph
Maryam Lee, Strategic Program Manager, The IO Foundation, Maryam.Lee@TheIOFoundation.org
Part 2 - Session Proposal
Session Title
Bottom-up Advocacy for a Resilient Internet
Session Format
Workshop (60 minutes)
Where do you plan to organize your session?
Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants)
Specific Issues for Discussion
Internet governance has come a long way since the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis almost two decades ago, when governments first brought policymaking for the Internet on the table. These days, many of the decisions that affect the Internet are being made at the local and regional levels, and a growing number threaten to unwittingly fragment the global Internet. In Asia-Pacific, these include directives to shut down parts of the Internet or popular applications (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam), and efforts to centralise control of Internet operations and resources: from national border gateways (Cambodia, China, Nepal) that give governments power to dictate how Internet traffic should be routed; to cost-sharing rules (South Korea) that require Internet service providers to pay each other to exchange traffic.

These mandates diverge sharply from the core principles of open, decentralized, bottom-up and collaborative Internet governance. Top-down, centralised points of control are both single points of failure and targets of attack, while arbitrary disruptions to access make the Internet unreliable – overall undermining its resilience. As a grassroots community of Internet champions, civil society organisations are best positioned to scrutinize local proposals that could erode the open, globally connected and secure Internet, and ensure that national and regional policies uphold the multistakeholder approach to governing this valuable public resource.

Using case studies, exercises and the Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit, this workshop will orient civil society groups in Asia-Pacific on the types of policy and business decisions that could cause the Internet to fragment, and equip them with tools and skills to identify, monitor, analyse and respond to these threats. The workshop aims to outline clear and concrete actions for civil society organisations to foster Internet resilience in the region.
Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF
A resilient Internet maintains an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges. It is able to adequately support the population’s connectivity needs, anticipate future uses for connectivity, and to maintain acceptable levels of Internet service in the event of a surge in demand for Internet access, an emergency (such as a natural disaster) – or unexpected service interruptions (such as a network outage).

While stakeholders including the global technical community are working hard to expand connectivity and build redundancy in the Internet’s architecture, certain policy choices could create divisions in the global Internet, isolating domestic networks and subjecting them to different rules, regulations and potentially standards. This could result in networks not being able to connect or operate together seamlessly, ultimately restricting our ability to use the Internet to communicate, transact, and access information and services.

This session asserts the important role of civil society in ensuring that the policies that affect the Internet are informed by and grounded on public interest. Civil society participation has been crucial in robust and inclusive Internet governance, and in raising the voice of developing countries. This workshop aims to help address the continuing need to build Internet advocates’ capacity to substantively contribute to emerging Internet issues and take collective action to influence policy processes that could shape the Internet of the future.
Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right)
Time frame (e.g. 5 minutes, 20 minutes, should add up to 60 minutes) Description
5 minutes Facilitators will welcome participants, and share housekeeping, guidance and workshop instructions.
10 minutes Facilitators will orient participants on the Internet Society’s Internet Fragmentation Advocacy Toolkit.
30 minutes Breakout groups (maximum of 3 groups, 1 online/remote) will each be assigned a short case study to work on and given a template to fill up with information on: The types of threat(s) the case study poses on the core principles of the Internet; Advocacy measures, including joint activities, to mitigate this threat.
15 minutes Participants will share their key takeaways, and together make a plan to pursue opportunities for collaboration that were identified in the exercise
Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible)
  • Moderator (Primary)

    • Name: Neeti Biyani
    • Organization: Internet Society
    • Designation: Senior Advisor, Policy and Advocacy
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: India
    • Stakeholder Group: Technical Community
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://www.internetsociety.org/author/biyani/
  • Moderator (Facilitator)

    • Name: Maristela Miranda
    • Organization: LIGHTS Institute
    • Designation: Associate
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Philippines
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ma-maristela-miranda-0544a311b/
  • Speaker 1

    • Name: Jean F Queralt
    • Organization: The IO Foundation
    • Designation: Founder & CEO
    • Gender: Male
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Malaysia
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: Online
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://TIOF.Click/JFQLinkedIn
  • Speaker 2

    • Name: Jessamine Joyce Pacis
    • Organization: Foundation for Media Alternatives
    • Designation: Project Coordinator
    • Gender: Cis woman
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Philippines
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
    • Link of Bio (URL only): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessaminepacis/
Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session.
NOTE: The speakers and moderators listed will act as workshop facilitators who will frame the session, and assist participants in completing the exercises.

Neeti Biyani co-led the Internet Society’s Fragmentation project and continues to lead the organisation’s advocacy efforts to counter Internet threats.

Michaela Nakayama Shapiro coordinates and supports GPD’s advocacy and engagement in technical standards-setting forums, including the ITU, IETF and ICANN. Michaela brings significant advocacy experience on issues related to artificial intelligence and internet governance at the global level, including in United Nations forums and processes, and has published research on a human rights-based approach to the governance of new and emerging digital technologies.

Jessamine Pacis is the Philippines Project Coordinator for the Countering Internet Fragmentation project led by Global Partners Digital. She has worked extensively on internet governance and digital rights advocacy, having been involved in research and advocacy work on issues such as cybercrime, cybersecurity, and privacy and surveillance in the Philippines.

Jean F. Queralt is the Founder & CEO of The IO Foundation (TIOF) as well as the project coordinator for Malaysia in the Countering Internet Fragmentation project under Global Partners Digital. Jean follows this issue closely and presented on it at last year’s IGF.
Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2024.
No
Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2024?
Yes
Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers)
    Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers)
      Consent
      I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2024.