[Governance] IGF Impact: French Telecoms Regulator + Council of Europe

Tue Jul 20 12:29:42 EDT 2021

Dear colleagues,
 Just a quick message to provide two recent empirical examples that might be of interest for the list members studying the impact that IGF (and other IG fora) might have on policy making.
 The French Telecoms Regulator (ARCEP) has published its report on the State of the Internet, with a two-page section dedicated to the findings of the volume on The Value of Internet Openness in Times of Crises (one of the IGF 2020 outputs). The section on “The Value of Internet Openness in Times of Crisis: Net Neutrality, Community Networks and Digital Self-determination” is at page 16-17of the ARCEP report. It is the first time an ARCEP official document explicitly refers to Community Networks, while also emphasising their potential for (network/digital) self-determination! https://en.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/report-state-internet-2021-edition-july2021.pdf
 The book on The Value of Internet Openness in Times of Crises is available here https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/filedepot_download/6114/2375
 Moreover, one month ago, there was also some good news from the Council of Europe, which adopted the Best practices on regulatory mechanisms of content moderation https://rm.coe.int/content-moderation-en/1680a2cc18
 The document quotes in several occasions the 2017 report on “Platform regulations: how platforms are regulated and how they regulate us” which was launched as an outcome of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility and is in open access here http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/dspace/handle/10438/19402
 The CoE Best Practices also take considerable inspiration from the “Recommendations on Terms of Service and Human Rights” that are annexed in the outcome volume above as well as in this study on “Terms of Service and Human Rights” developed in partnership by the Center for Technology and Society at FGV and the Council of Europe (also quoted by the CoE Best Practices) https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/home/-/asset_publisher/RAupmF2S6voG/content/terms-of-service-and-human-rights-an-analysis-of-online-platform-contracts?inheritRedirect=false
 The Recommendations were presented at the IGF 2015, as an outcome of the IGF Coalition on Platform Responsibility, and are available here https://www.intgovforum.org/cms/documents/igf-meeting/igf-2016/830-dcpr-2015-output-document-1/file
 IMHO, these instances provide concrete evidence to argue that the IGF is not (only) a mere talking shop and it is already possible for its community to self-organise and have relevant impact on national and regional policy making initiatives.
 I hope this is useful!
 Kind regards
 Luca
 PS: I took the liberty to leave, below, the text of my last year email, which was providing further evidence on the positive impact that IGF initiatives may have ðŸ˜‰

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Luca Belli, PhD 
Professor, FGV Law School, Rio de Janeiro  
Head of the Center for Technology and Society at FGV
direitorio.fgv.br/cts | www.cyberbrics.info |  www.cpdp.lat  

t: @1lucabelli 

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--------- Original Message --------- Subject: [GIGANET-MEMBERS] Excellent News for Brazil, the IGF and Community Networks
From: "Luca Belli" <LB at LUCABELLI.NET>
Date: 2/21/20 5:51 am
To: "GIGANET-MEMBERS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" <GIGANET-MEMBERS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>

Dear all, 
 I would like to share some excellent news from Brazil, that has also a very positive impact on the IGF and its work.
 The Brazilian Telecoms Regulator ANATEL has explicitly and officially recognized Community Networks as an option for Internet access in Brazil and, while doing so, explicitly mentions (and links) “The Community Network Manual” (2018 outcome of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity) in the rational for this decision. https://www.anatel.gov.br/setorregulado/component/content/article/2-uncategorised/528-redes-comunitarias
 This is, to date, the biggest country on hearth explicitly recognising the value of CNs. The creation of CNs in Brazil was already possible, as simplified ISPs, since 2017 (see our study here on CN in Latin America here https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2018/community-networks-in-latin-america/ ) but this is the first time ANATEL officially uses the CN terminology providing both legal and technical guidance (using the CN Manual!) on how to create them.
 This is not only important for Brazil but also represent another* piece of concrete evidence that the IGF is not a mere talking shop and when people want to use the IGF process to produce meaningful outcomes, they can. And, importantly, IGF outputs can have real impact on digital policies.
 My sincerest congratulations to ALL those who dedicated time to development and use of the CN Manual, particularly the members of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity that are on this list!
 All the best
 Luca 

 *In case you are looking for other concrete examples, please find a selection below:
 - In 2018, the inclusion of the Zero Rating Map (developed by DCNN) in the State of the Internet Report of the French Telecom Regulator ARCEP https://www.arcep.fr/uploads/tx_gspublication/report-state-internet-2018_conf050618-ENG.pdf 
 - In 2016 the inclusion of the Recommendations on Terms of Service and Human Rights in the ToS and HR the joint FGV & Council of Europe report on the subject https://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/home/-/asset_publisher/RAupmF2S6voG/content/terms-of-service-and-human-rights-an-analysis-of-online-platform-contracts?inheritRedirect=false
 The Recommendations were later used for the elaboration of the CoE Recommendation (2018)2 of the Committee of Ministers on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=0900001680790e14 
 - In 2013 the inclusion of the Model Framework on Net Neutrality in this expert report ( https://rm.coe.int/16805a09ca )that originated the elaboration of the CoE Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)1of the Committee of Ministers on network neutrality https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectID=09000016805c1e59 

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Luca Belli, PhD 
Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation, FGV Law School, Rio de Janeiro  
Chercheur Associé, Centre de Droit Public Comparé, Université Paris 2

www.cyberbrics.info  |  www.cpdp.lat  |  www.internet-governance.fgv.br 

t: @1lucabelli 

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CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
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