Outline

Plenary Theme: Preliminary Domestic Meeting of IGF2023 Kyoto

Date and Time:

• [Day 1] Thursday, September 7, 2023, 13:30-17:00 (hybrid)
• [Day 2] Friday, September 8, 2023, 11:10-14:30 (online only)

Day 1

Meeting Opening

In his opening remarks, Mr. Masanobu Katoh, Chair of the Rejuvenation Team of the National IGF in Japan  for IGF 2023, announced that the 18th edition of  IGF, which started in 2006, will be held in Japan for the first time, with more than 3,000 participants already registered from around the world. There will be more than 350 scheduled sessions on various internet-related topics. Japanese IGF sessions have been asked to make a trailer presentation. Mr. Katoh also added that he really hopes that all the participants will attend the IGF in Kyoto in October in person, if possible. 

Mr. Jun Murai of Keio University also mentioned, in his video message, that in the three years of the pandemic, the whole socio-economy, including working and life styles, has changed drastically, and there is nothing in industry or life that is not related to the Internet. It was emphasised that this year's IGF2023 in particular will be a historically significant point to consider the future of the Internet in the digital society.  He hoped that as many people as possible would participate in the IGF at this critical time.

Measures against Online Child Pornography in Japan – Significance of Japan's measures from the UN and other international perspectives: legal, technical, etc. (OF #58)

At the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm in 1996, Japan was criticised for not even having the word "child prostitution", let alone a law to control the purchase of child pornography by Japanese tourists and businessmen in Southeast Asian countries. Since then, various regulations have been developed over the years to restrict everything from print media to the Internet.  Countermeasures include blocking by providers and filtering by users themselves.  However, blocking might violate the Constitution, which prohibits censorship of information, and requires a careful response.  Under these circumstances, the Internet Content Safety Association (ICSA) provides a mechanism for listing and deleting online child pornography, etc., and takes its own particularly strict measures against child pornography, such as blocking it even if it is risky, for example if it cannot be regulated by providers outside Japan.

Global Dialogue with Cyber Incident Responders (NS #44)

Often compared to a fire brigade, CERT is the team that responds to cyber incidents when they occur, including prevention by addressing system vulnerabilities, warning by investigating and information sharing about incidents, and post-incident response. The number of cases handled by the JPCERT has increased over the years. In particular,post-COVID-19, the number of incidents increased significantly and is now three times higher than before COVID-19. JPCERT's global activities include "First" which is a global association of CERTs, and "APCERT" for the Asia-Pacific region, where JPCERT in Japan actively participates in.. At IGF2023 in Kyoto, WS #396 will discuss the importance of global cooperation among CERTs to combat the growing number of state-sponsored cybercrimes. In addition, the networking session #44 will allow all attendees to actively participate in small group discussions to network among those interested in cybersecurity.

Regulations on Video-on-Demand (WS #149)

The Fair Contribution argument, whereby content providers should fairly share the burden of the telecommunications companies providing the networks necessary to deliver high-volume content, appears to be a positive concept in the US FCC and the EU. However, the discussion has not progressed very far in Japan. In addition, regulations are being imposed on global video distribution service companies to protect their own content (culture), especially in Europe and the UK, and the interest to discuss how to contribute to local content is also growing abroad. While in Japan, broadcasters have not been impacted too hard yet, partly because the free ad-supported broadcasting business is dominant and the paid broadcasting business is not the main focus. In addition, Japanese viewers who subscribe to SVOD tend to watch domestic content rather than US or European content, and there is less need for local content protection regulations. However, FAST, which is based on free advertising, has recently experienced significant growth in the US and future trends should be closely monitored.

Day 2

International Discussion on AI Strategies (TH #105)

The speakers introduced domestic and international regulations, and technological developments on AI, and discussed three key points: First, on AI and risks, it is necessary to properly sort out what cannot be addressed by existing laws and what additional risks are associated with AI rather than humans. Regarding the second point, interoperability, many participants agreed that the concept of "agile governance" is important in this era of rapid change, rather than a "write everything into the regulations" approach. With regard to the third, stakeholders and responsibilities, it was commented that the unique nature of AI as a black box makes it difficult to determine where responsibility lies, and that it is important to add incentives for providing information and to design a division of responsibility across the board.

Challenges and Opportunities for Building Trustworthy Data Distribution that contributes to Development (WS #224)

The background, challenges and benefits of Data Free Flow with Trust (DFFT) were explained. By enabling the safe and trustworthy distribution of data domestically and internationally, developing countries can benefit from DFFT in a number of ways, for example by providing anonymised data in their own countries as a resource, or by being able to use advanced ICT resources abroad. There were references to the various benefits of DFFT in developing countries. On the other hand, there are also various issues such as concerns about data protection, cyber security and data oligopoly. A major concern is that developing countries have not been included in international discussions on data distribution. At IGF Kyoto, we would like to prepare several critical questions and discuss them with various participants, including panellists, on how to build and operate future institutions that actively include the voices of developing countries and how to use DFFT in the context of development. The session introduction was concluded by inviting the audience to attend the session.

Global best practices on socially, economically and environmentally responsible campuses (OF #159)/Progressing Global Good Practice for the Internet of Things (#9 DC-IoT)

Two sessions of the IGF were presented. First, Dynamic Coalition #9, where like-minded members will be working to share good practice and messaging on various issues related to the security and ethics of internet-related products and components (IoT). The second session, OpenTech, will be held at the end of the conference. In the other session, Open Forum #159, regarding one of the World Economic Forum's activities which is the Global Smart Cities Alliance, where they will share practices and discuss how to build smart cities. Smart cities usually have a very large number of stakeholders, but university campuses have fewer stakeholders and it is easier to carry out projects. Therefore, the Alliance is trying to accelerate its activities with a focus on campuses and plans to introduce its initiatives at IGF Kyoto.