IGF Needs Bold Reform, Internet Needs More Regulation, Says President Macron

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron today opened the 13th Internet Governance Forum (November 12-14) in Paris with a firework of requests to the IGF community and some bold ideas. The IGF after a decade should take on much more responsibility in the development of internet regulation, Macron demanded, and said he together with last year’s and next year’s hosts of the UN forum is collaborating on pushing for more formal results, The IGF according to Macron should become a part of the UN Secretary General‘s Office, Macron proposed, to illustrate the importance. His call for regulation was echoed at the event by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

“We need to regulate to have a free open and safe internet,” Macron urged the roughly 1,000 participants. He said much more regulation is necessary, mentioning in particular security, content regulation against hate speech, fake news and other unwanted content, and the protection of intellectual property online.

“Standing up for copyright does not mean strangling the internet,” Macron said. “Quite the opposite. We will have talented men and women rising up.” Without IP protection, he added, one would only acknowledge the right to distribute, but not the right to create.

One bold step Macron wants to see in regulation is putting an end to the discrimination between hosting and content providers, stating that the limited liability that has protected hosters so far, is wrong.

While calling regulation necessary to avoid falling into the traps of either the “Californian” or the “Chinese” way, Macron also invited the IGF participants to be part of the regulatory effort. Between leaving decisions up to the invisible hand of the market and mere state-directed development, the multi-stakeholder development of rules and regulation is the third and best way, according to Macron.

“We will be the first to pay the price if we don‘t regulate properly,” he warned.

One project France currently has initiated in that regard is that Facebook would host a delegation of French diplomats to jointly work on proposals for content regulation.

Macron also said work on taxation of internet companies has to be pushed by Europe, in order to not make only small and medium-sized businesses pay.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his opening speech also underlined the need to change the IGF.

“We cannot leave our fate in the digital age to the invisible hand of the market forces,” Guterres said, adding at the same time that “classical forms of regulation” are not up to the challenge.

Guterres is the first Secretary General to open the IGF in person. With Switzerland, France and next year Germany hosting the event, Europe‘s politicians seemingly intend to making their mark on the forum.

The IGF continues to 14 November and can be followed online on:  https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/

Meanwhile, alongside the IGF, Macron also launched the Paris Call for trust and security in cyberspace. The Call signed by some governments last night at the Paris Peace Forum lists half a dozen themes on which the signatories – over 300 by now – agree to collaborate. It includes the protection of the public core against attacks, “strengthening  capacity to prevent malign interference by foreign actors aimed at undermining electoral processes through malicious cyber activities” and to prevent hack-backs by state actors. The Call to action will be further developed during next year’s Paris Peace Forum, and Macron said it also would be continued during next year’s IGF in Germany.

 

Image Credits: Monika Ermert