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At-Large Priority Activities - 2022

Date: Thursday, 25 April 2024

Time: 06:00 - 07:15 UTC (for the time in various time zones click here)

How do I participate in this meeting?

English Conference ID = 1638

ZOOM Registration Link: https://icann.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkfuCqpzgoGNeaggZfLOq5kqzmXf5pVFoB  (you MUST register to join!) 

*** After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the meeting.***

Zoom Recording: EN

Audio Recording: EN

Chat: EN

Transcript: EN

Participants: Amrita Choudhury, Chris Buckridge, Pablo Hinojosa, Anriette Esterhuysen, Ahmad Umair Suhaidi, Aris Ignacio, Ashirwad Tripathy, Barkha Manral, Bikram Shrestha, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Dr. Govind, Dr. Vladimer Svanadze, Faheem Soomro, Farha Trina, Holly Raiche, Harisa Shahid, Jianchuan Zhang, Juliana Harsianti, Justine Chew, K Mohan Raidu, Bukola Oronti, Kapil Goyal, Katarina Gevorgyan, Kiki Fong Lim, Kong Diep, Letita Masaea, Maureen Hilyard, Md. Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Atif Aleem, Mohammad Kawsar Uddin, Nabeel Yasin Amin, Noelle de Guzman, Nur Adlin Hanisah Shahul Ikram, Pavan Budhrani, Praveen Misra, Pua Hunter, Ron Lee, Sarai Tevita, Satish Babu, Shah Zahidur Rahman, Shahanaj Begum, Sébastien Bachollet, Udeep Baral, Vineet Kumar, Waqar Ahmad, Waqas Hassan, Winthrop Yu, Ashrafur Rahman Piaus, Bibek Silwal, Priyatosh Jana, Jay Paudyal, Sabarinath G Pillai, Umera Asmat, Puteri Ameena Hishammuddin, Avri Doria, Sayda Kamrun Jahan, Kalpesh Chaudhari, Hong Xue, Abdullah Mamun, Azeem Sajjad, Aviral Kaintura, Nicolas Rouhana

Apologies: Ali AlMeshal, Gopal Tadepalli, Suhaidi Hassan

Staff: Gisella Gruber, Athena Foo, Yeşim Sağlam

Call Management: Yeşim Sağlam

You are invited to participate the fifth APRALO Policy Forum Fireside Chat: "Let's Talk About Internet Fragmentation & Multistakeholder Internet Governance" on Thursday 25 April 2024 at 06:00 UTC for 75 minutes, where Amrita Choudhury, APRALO Chair, will be chatting with her guests, Anriette Esterhuysen, Chris Buckridge and Pablo Hinojosa about how Internet Fragmentation impacts us as Internet end-users, and what the Multistakeholder Model and in particular, the At-Large Community, can do to avert global fragmentation of the interconnected Internet. 

Internet Fragmentation is a significant concern in todays digital world. as it poses a significant challenge to the global, open, interoperable and interconnected nature of the Internet.   The global geopolitical tensions, misinformation, national legislations introduced to protect sovereign interests, new challenges ushered in by new technologies,  have been observed to escalate the concerns of fragmenting the Internet.  As a result Internet Fragmentation is a  much discussed topic across the world and also reflected as one of the Sub Themes for IGF2023 "Avoiding Internet Fragmentation." 

Further, today the discussion of digital technologies and its governance is taking centre stage  and we are witnessing a threat to the multistakeholder model of Governance that ICANN has always endorsed and a push for multilateral model in several processes such as the Global Digital Compact, Summit of the Future. 

Having had an earlier conversation on Internet Fragmentation in the ICANN context with Jia-Rong Low, we are now pleased to carry the conversation further with Internet Governance experts comprising Anriette Esterhuysen, Senior Advisor on Global and Regional Internet Governance, Chris Buckridge, Independent Consultant on Internet Governance and Digital Policy and Pablo Hinojosa, Senior Director of Engagement at APNIC. They will discuss the state of multi-stakeholderism in Internet Governance with moderator Amrita Choudhury, touching on:- 

  • What does Internet Fragmentation mean, what are some of the dimensions of fragmentation  and how does it impact  the multistakeholder model and end-users?
  • What role does the At-Large Community have, as part of ICANN's multi-stakeholder model and beyond, in addressing Internet Fragmentation risks, given ICANN's "One World, One Internet" goal? How can the At-Large Community support ICANN's endeavour?

Don't forget to pre-register your participation! And if you have any, please let us have your questions on this topic by posting them as comments to this wiki page below; or if you prefer, submit them by emailing staff at staff@atlarge.icann.org

Agenda 

  1. Roll call - Staff (2 mins)
  2. Welcome & Introduction - Amrita Choudhury (5 min)
  3. Let's chat! - Amrita Choudhury and panellists (40 min)
    1. Anriette Esterhuysen, Senior Advisor on Global and Regional Internet Governance
    2. Chris Buckridge, Independent Consultant on Internet Governance and Digital Policy 
    3. Pablo Hinojosa, Senior Director, Engagement, APNIC
  4. Audience Interaction  (10 mins)
  5. Feedback / Poll (5 min)
  6. Concluding Remarks - Amrita Choudhury (2 min)
  7. Close

Guest Speakers & Moderator Profiles

Anriette Esterhuysen is a human rights defender and computer networking pioneer from South Africa. She has pioneered the use of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to promote social justice in South Africa and throughout the world, focusing on affordable Internet access. She was the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications from 2000 until April 2017, when she became APC's Director of Policy and Strategy. 

Anriette has served on the African Technical Advisory Committee of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa's African Information Society Initiative and was a member of the United Nations ICT Task Force from 2002 to 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Working Group on Financing Mechanisms, and the Commission on Science and Technology for Development Working Group on Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Improvements. She was a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum from 2012 to 2014. In November 2019 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Esterhuysen to chair the Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group, a position she held up to 2021.

Chris Buckridge is an independent consultant, analyst, and commentator in the Internet governance and digital policy space. He worked for more than two decades with Regional Internet Registries, starting with APNIC in 2003, before joining the RIPE NCC in 2006. During his tenure at the RIPE NCC, he helped develop and lead the organisation’s engagement in public policy and Internet governance, working closely with institutions including the International Telecommunication Union, the OECD, and the United Nations.

In 2015, Chris served a member of the Australian government delegation to the WSIS+10 review. Since 2016, he has served as a member of the EuroDIG Association Board, and has been actively engaged in national and regional Internet governance initiatives around the world. In 2021, he was appointed to the Multistakeholder Advisory Group or MAG of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, where he will complete his third and final one-year term in 2024. In 2023, he was appointed to an initial three-year term on the ICANN Board of Directors. 

Pablo Hinojosa is Director, Strategic Engagement at APNIC. He is responsible of representing the organisation in a senior diplomatic capacity, cultivating and managing relationships with governments, key intergovernmental organisations and member communities. Previous to joining APNIC, he was responsible for managing the Latin American portfolio at ICANN. Previous to joining ICANN, he was Director for Multilateral Affairs in the Mexican Federal Telecommunications Commission. As a government official, he was the Representative from Mexico at ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), where he held the position of Vice- Chair. Pablo was part of the Mexican delegation attending WSIS and also Advisor to the Chair of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecommunications and Information Working Group (APEC-TEL).

Amrita Choudhury is the Chair of APRALO.  She is an active participant in national and global digital policy and internet governance discussions. She serves as the Director of CCAOI, Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA) Chair, Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional IGF (AprIGF), and President of Internet Society India Delhi Chapter. Amrita co-founded the India School on Internet Governance (inSIG) and is a Coordination Committee member of India IGF (IIGF).

Amrita advises youth initiatives such as Youth IGF India. She has in the past served as a United Nations IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (UN IGF MAG) Member for 3 terms. For more details on Amrita, please visit: https://in.linkedin.com/in/amrita-choudhury-b0865511/

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  1. Justine Chew

    Activity Report

    By Amrita Choudhury, Shah Zahidur Rahman and Justine Chew

    The APRALO Policy Forum hosted its 5th Fireside Chat: Let’s Talk About Internet Fragmentation & Multistakeholder Internet Governance where Amrita Choudhury, APRALO Chair, chatted with her guest speakers Anriette Esterhuysen, Senior Advisor on Global and Regional Internet Governance; Chris Buckridge, Independent Consultant on Internet Governance and Digital Policy, and ICANN Board Member; and Pablo Hinojosa, Senior Director of Engagement at APNIC.

    The conversation began with the speakers providing their interpretation of Internet Fragmentation and discussing the spectrum of fragmentation across technical vs governance & coordination vs commercial levels. They alluded to global geopolitical tensions, misinformation, national legislations introduced to protect sovereign interests, new challenges ushered in by new digital technologies as some obvious causes of Internet Fragmentation and how these factors impact us as Internet end-users. Engagement with the over 60 participants then proceeded onto the notion of Internet governance and explored the role the Multistakeholder Model and in particular, the At-Large Community, can play to avert global fragmentation of the interconnected Internet. 

    Some of the key takeaways include:

    • Internet Fragmentation is not binary and may mean different things to different people.
    • It is important to differentiate between fragmentation and bad policy.
    • Internet resilience notwithstanding, we need to continuously engage the different interest groups, concerns and processes that may pose challenges. There is a need to collaborate and understand and support each other’s needs and priorities as a common responsibility of all stakeholders. This is the essence of multistakeholder commitment.
    • Multistakeholder governance model should not be limited to mere policy making and regulation but must have multistakeholder commitment, with checks and balances to ensure that what we do in our own domain does not create constraints for others.
    • The At-Large can create, in its networks, an awareness on fragmentation, the different forms and threats it can pose and inject inputs from communities into discussions to reflect different user experiences to fragmentation across the globe.