Geneva Lecture Series: "Current Internet Governance Challenges; what’s next?"

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

C’est avec le plus grand plaisir que je vous souhaite la bienvenue au Palais de Nations. Les défis liés à la gouvernance d’internet sont le sujet de la 10ème édition des Rendez-vous mondiaux de Genève. Je suis heureux d'accueillir un panel aussi distingué pour discuter des différents aspects de cette thématique importante et pertinente.

I am particularly delighted to welcome a true thought leader and accomplished practitioner in the digital world as this year’s keynote speaker: Mr. Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft.

Today, over three and half billion people across the world are connected to the internet. It reaches across time and space, and connects people from faraway places. But the wonder of the internet is not an abstraction. It can deliver the entirety of human knowledge to a child in a remote village on a single hand-held device. In fact, it’s almost a truism to note that none of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved without it.

But if the internet has produced benefits completely unthinkable until only a few years ago, technological progress has also produced challenges we have only just begun to fathom:

̶ Technology has equipped some governments with the means for surveillance of almost anyone, anywhere, at any time.

̶ Technology has given some private IT companies so much power, they can even influence election outcomes. They collect so much data about you and me, they may even know more about us than we do ourselves. The potential for misuse is clearly an issue we need to be aware of and deal with.

̶ Technology has increased the risk of conflict as a new arms race is gaining speed in weaponized robotics and artificial intelligence. Cyberspace is a new battlefield – co-equal with combat on land, sea or air. Algorithms can be as powerful as tanks; bots as decisive as bombs.

̶ Technology has strained societies’ cohesion as it shifts the distribution of income from labour to capital. Automation creates new opportunities, but threatens to make almost half of all existing jobs redundant. How can we train the millions of jobless people so that they acquire the necessary qualifications for the new jobs?

Taken together, yesterday’s optimism has given way to today’s trust deficit. To safeguard the good and tame the bad of tomorrow’s technologies, we are faced with an urgent governance challenge.

We need to design a normative framework that addresses these and other threats while further promoting innovation and creativity in the digital sector in support of the SDGs and a better planet. It is possible.

In the absence of relevant and robust digital policies, our courts are forced to adjudicate on complex internet governance issues – just recall the decision of the European Court of Justice on Google known as the “right to be forgotten” ruling.

The good news is that the political will, focus and momentum is increasingly there to do something about it. Only last month, G7 nations and leading technology companies agreed to work together to combat online terror propaganda. Meanwhile, Secretary-General António Guterres – who is actually the first UN Secretary-General with a science and engineering background – just returned from the Web Summit in Lisbon. He is very keen and committed to address these issues and will ensure that the United Nations will be as helpful as possible in the global search for solutions to these urgent challenges.

New, bold and imaginative proposals on the way forward are needed. The idea of a Digital Geneva Convention is such a proposal.
But to be credible and effective, our dialogue around a Digital Convention needs to include everyone:
- the scientists developing technologies,
- the multinationals that own and sell them,
- the governments that regulate them,
- the everyday consumers who use and shape them, and
- finally, civil society, which continues to play a crucial role in the development and use of technology.

And whatever the outcome we ultimately agree on, it is absolutely critical that it be people and value centred. After all, the internet – as indeed technology in general – is not value neutral.

All of us have a stake. All of us have a responsibility. All of us need to make our voices heard.

This is why today’s discussion is taking place simultaneously right here in the Palais and – through live-webcast and online discussion – across cyberspace. Again: neither national governments, nor the technology sector, nor civil society, nor anyone else can alone solve the challenges of technological progress.

The United Nations is the neutral table where all relevant actors can meet to discuss these issues; Geneva the place to bring us together. Geneva is a global hub for internet governance, where over half of global internet policy discussions take place. Home to a unique ecosystem of policymakers, scientists, academics, and business leaders, Geneva is where the necessary discussions can progress to define the global rules that we so urgently need.

Thank you very much and I look forward to a stimulating evening.