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Workshop Format. Please click here for a description of available Workshop Session Formats.
Roundtable
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Duration of proposed workshop
90 minutes
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IGF 2015 subtheme that this workshop falls under
Internet and Human Rights
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Description
This roundtable is aimed to go in depth into one of the most controversial topics regarding internet and human rights: how the right to protest and assembly can be affected by surveillance and legal bans to online anonymity in developing countries.
Different online platforms has enabled not just the free expression of internet users, but also has simplified the way citizens can organize protests both online and offline and communicate in order to political dissent. In this context, to preserve anonymity can be fundamental.
However, mass surveillance by states, data retention laws, personal data collection by companies, legal bans on anonymity and threats to encryption online, seem to put a name and a face to every online move. Anonymity is either impossible, or at least strongly compromised.
In this environment of mass identification, is it possible to have truly right to protest and assembly?
From a multi-stakeholder approach, this roundtable will try to understand the actual state of online anonymity and how current legal and technical frameworks and the internet governance frames are facing the challenges of online dissent in developing countries.
Additionally, the roundtable will present different perspectives regarding online anonymity and the protection of privacy, from governments, private sector, technical community and civil society, trying to address which are the responsibilities each one of them has in terms of protect the right to protest and assembly in a convulsed world.
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Name, stakeholder group, and organizational affiliation of workshop proposal co-organizer(s)
Paz Pena
Civil Society
Derechos Digitales
Luis Garcia
Civil Society
Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) Mexico
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Has the proposer, or any of the co-organizers, organized an IGF workshop before?
no
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Subject matter #tags that describe the workshop
#Anonymity, #Surveillance, #FreedomofExpression, #SocialProtest, #Democracy
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Description of the plan to facilitate discussion amongst speakers, audience members and remote participants
In the roundtable, the moderator will do a short introduction about how the persecution of online anonymity puts at risk the right to protest and the assembly of people from developing countries.
Then, the moderator will ask one question to each participant regarding this first issue. These questions can be prior submitted by social media and mailing lists and will be selected by the two moderators.
The remote moderator will add two more questions from the public and Twitter to any of the roundtable participants.
If the technical conditions allow it, throughout all the session, the remote moderator will select comments from Twitter to show them in a big screen.
Finally, the moderator will wrap out the roundtable identifying convergences and divergences from participants.
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Names and affiliations (stakeholder group, organization) of the participants in the proposed workshop
Name: David Kaye
Stakeholder group: Intergovernmental Organization
Organization: United Nations
Describe why this speaker has been selected: As the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, he can give a global approach about the importance of online anonymity and the use of encryption.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (confirmed).
Name: Zoya Rehman
Stakeholder group: Civil Society
Organization: Bytes For All, Pakistan
Describe why this speaker has been selected: Zoya is member of Bytes for All, a human rights organization that campaigns against internet censorship in Pakistan. He can give the perspective of how political dissent is been expressed on Internet and how that expression has been menaced in an asian country like Pakistan.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (confirmed)
Name: Joana Varon
Stakeholder group: Civil society
Organization: Coding Rights
Joana Varon is an online privacy activist and one of the heads of Protestos.org platform, where Brazilians can find recommendations regarding the use of safe technologies for social protest. She will give a civil society perspective about the legal trends that put online anonymity and the right to protest in danger.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (confirmed)
Name: Leila Nachawati
Stakeholder group: Civil society
Organization: Communications and Information Policy Program at APC
Describe why this speaker has been selected: Leila works on human rights in Mena region and is also part of the SyriaUntold team, a digital archive on the Syrian civil movement and its creative and artistic content.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y
Name: Pedro Less
Stakeholder group: Private sector
Organization: Google
Describe why this speaker has been selected: Google is one of the most important multi-platforms on internet. The Director Government Affairs & Public Policy Latin America at Google can show how the company protects the online anonymity of users in social protests and go in depth about best practices.
Have you contacted the speaker? Y (confirmed)
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Name of in-person Moderator(s)
Claudio Ruiz, Derechos Digitales
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Name of Remote Moderator(s)
Luis García, Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) Mexico
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Name of Rapporteur(s)
Paz Pena, Derechos Digitales
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Description of the proposer's plans for remote participation
Remote participation will be encouraged before and during the roundtable. First, in order to get questions for the moderator, we will encourage for participation the days before our roundtable through social media outlets. The final 5 questions will be selected by the moderator and the remote moderator and will be asked at the roundtable.
During the roundtable, a remote participation moderator will be present to facilitate comments and contributions from remote participators via IGF's Remote Participation platform, as well as on Twitter.
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Background paper
No background paper provided
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Agenda
The way internet is regulated and controlled affects directly or indirectly the exercise of human rights. The right to protest and assembly are one of those. The values and defense of an open and interoperable web are intrinsically connected with the Internet as a place to defend our rights.
This workshop will embrace this challenge analyzing how the right to protest and assembly can be affected by surveillance and legal bans to online anonymity in developing countries. In a roundtable, we have invited representatives of private sector, governments and civil society to provide a closer look to one of the most controversial topics in the internet governance and regulation nowadays in developing countries.
Agenda
Introduction (5 minutes): Short introduction by the moderator.
First round of questions (35 minutes): the moderator will ask one question to each participant.
Second round of questions (30 minutes): The remote moderator will add at least three more questions from the public and two more from Twitter to any of the roundtable participants.
Final comments from participants (15 minutes)
Wrap up (5 minutes): Finally, the moderator will wrap out the roundtable identifying convergences and divergences from participants.
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Key Issues raised (1 sentence per issue):
Anonymity is in danger: not just because digital technologies but also because the bills and laws that are threatening freedom of speech and privacy in the developing world.
Anonymity as a fundamental right: Specially in the context of oppressive political regimes, anonymity is a fundamental right and a lifesaver for activists in the developing world.
Encryption: is not enough to protect anonymity, political answers to protect online anonymity are also needed.
Anonymity in the online context: In the digital context, anonymity needs to have a redefinition that includes geolocation.
Privacy for the next billion: It's crucial to understand how the anonymity of the next billion users on internet is going to be protected.
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Please describe the discussions that took place during the workshop session (3 paragraphs):
Encryption is a very important tool to preserve online anonymity but is not enough in the developing world, where bills and laws are threatening online anonymity. It is urgent a more progressive framework to understand online anonymity for governments where security cannot prevail over the idea of anonymity as a right. Online anonymity for oppressive regimes can be the difference between life and death.
In the idea to advance in this discussion, it’s time to redefine anonymity considering the online context where the geolocation is fundamental and where 100% anonymity is impossible to get. It is also necessary that the private sector commit itself in order to protect anonymity by technological means but also respecting online anonymity for all the citizens in the world.
All the tools for the exercise of freedom of speech can be abused. In this sense, in a context of online gender abuse, is important to understand that the crime is not anonymity. In fact, online anonymity is crucial for women and gender minorities, especially in developing countries where religion is a fundamental part of the political life.
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If there were presentations during the workshop session, please provide a 1-paragraph summary for each presentation:
Joana Varón from Coding Rights presented the political situation in Brazil where anonymity is forbidden by the Constitution since 1988. For Brazilians this situation is especially difficult to interpret on internet where anonymity is a fundamental piece for freedom of speech and the protection of human rights in general.
For Pedro Less from Google, anonymity has played a fundamental rol for the freedom of expression on the internet. To preserve anonymity, it's important to protect encryption, especially in the political context where governments from developing countries are using more surveillance technologies. That's why Google has made a commitment to offer encryption technologies to their users.
For Zoya Rehman from Bytes For All, Pakistan, the use of anonymity is a political commitment, because the use of legal names in countries as Pakistan can be very dangerous for political reasons. This is particularly relevant to gender and religious minorities, where the use of anonymity can be the difference between life or death.
For Leila Nachawati from APC, MENA region has similarities with the political Pakistani situation. In a context where freedom of speech activists are being jailed with the excuse of war on terror, anonymity is a lifesaver for activists.
For David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, anonymity is a tool for prevent censorship and a vital piece to encourage political participation and share ideas in the community. Also, anonymity is nowadays a fundamental way for government's accountability: in this context, the whistleblowers and journalists' roles are central for political dissent. However, whistleblowers, journalists and their sources are the most affected with laws and measures that are looking for ending anonymity, for example, metadata tracking or data retention laws.
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Please describe any participant suggestions regarding the way forward/ potential next steps/ key takeaways (3 paragraphs):
Encryption technologies are important to preserve anonymity, but it's difficult to depend upon them because, as Leila Nachawati said, not all the people are tech-savvy. In this context, political answers to protect online anonymity are also needed.
As Zoya Rehman suggested in her presentation, is necessary a more progressive framework to understand online anonymity for governments. In this regard, the security idea cannot prevail over the idea of anonymity as a right. Also, a redefinition of anonymity considering its online dimension could help in the debate, having in account that perfect anonymity is almost impossible to get (it's time to talk more about pseudo anonymity, as Joana Varón suggested) and that the geolocation dimension is as much important as the identity dimension.
Regarding hate speech, online harassment and gender violence, the conclusions were that all the tools for the exercise of freedom of speech can be abused. In this sense, in a context of online gender abuse, is important to understand that the crime is not anonymity.
Finally, when the connection of the next billion to internet is such an important issue today in forums as the IGF, it's crucial to understand how the anonymity of those users is going to be protected. This is especially relevant when the connection to internet is made by cellphones that in a lot of developing countries are provided with SIM card registration. In this context, if we fight to protect online anonymity, we need to also fight for online anonymity as a right for developed countries as non developed ones.
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Estimate the overall number of the participants present at the session:
80
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Estimate the overall number of women present at the session:
About half of the participants were women
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To what extent did the session discuss gender equality and/or women’s empowerment?
It was raised by one or more speakers as an important aspect of the session’s theme
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If the session addressed issues related to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment, please provide a brief summary of the discussion:
Two were the main gender issues that were addressed:
1) Online anonymity is crucial for women and gender minorities, especially in developing countries where religion is a fundamental part of the political life. The protection of online anonymity can be a lifesaver for them.
2) Regarding hate speech, online harassment and gender violence, the conclusions were that all the tools for the exercise of freedom of speech can be abused. In this sense, in a context of online gender abuse, is important to understand that the crime is not anonymity.
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