Keynote 03 2022

22 June 2022 | 14:15 - 14:45 CEST | SISSA Main Auditorium | |
Consolidated programme 2022 overview / Day 2

Youth Messages 2022

• Participants YOUthDIG 2022

1. Artificial Intelligence in a Natural World

• Address the existing bias and data gaps in terms of gender, race, geography and disability through the exposure of the methodological process behind the data collection and processing.
• Recommend the open and collaborative forecast of potential societal impact of the Al systems through multi-stakeholder impact assessments.
• Request a change in the scope of the debate around accountability from transparency to contestability, where users are also included as stakeholders.
• Urge to enhance the guarantees for users to safeguard individual and collective digital rights.

2. Envisioning the Future of Social Media

• Introduce a framework that encourages social, and discourages antisocial behaviour in the digital world. This can be applied cross-border and can be the basis for development of further legislation.
• Develop a European-based and owned social media platform, that facilitates and encourages democratic participation and where users remain in control of their personal data.
• Encourage the flagging of misleading online content and the verification of credible and accurate content by a collaboration between moderators and users.
• Introduce media literacy mechanisms to maintain society and users informed about the identification of fake-news.

3. Sustainability and ICTs

(ICTs refers to Information and Communication Technologies)

• On the role of academia: we stress the need to further increase investment and funding to foster research and innovation connecting the digital, social, and green transitions; further improve outreach strategies to communicate funding opportunities and overcome institutional, geographic, socioeconomic, and other persistent barriers; and provide financial mechanisms to diversify and expand the existing and emerging partnerships and networks worldwide.
• On the continuous overproduction and overconsumption of data services, processing, and storage, as well as of electronic devices and online services: we strongly demand that the 3R approach be an integral element in Internet Governance and digital policy dialogues and decision-making. Moreover, acknowledging the decisive role of the end-user or consumer, yet noting the persistent digital literacy gap, we encourage a critical perspective in the use of data and technical devices, while also supporting efforts to design accessible guidelines to learn how to make efficient and sustainable use of smart technologies.
• On the application of ICTs for socioeconomic development: we strongly recommend forecasting and critically evaluating their use and impact in sectors of the economy where their application is still in its inception, such as but not limited to administration, agriculture, retailing and e-commerce, infrastructure, urban planning, justice, and healthcare. Furthermore, noting the rising trends towards platform and remote work, and their influence in the youth in particular, we recommend that intergenerational multistakeholder efforts in Internet Governance also discuss the digital, socioeconomic, and environmental dimensions of the role of lCTs in the future of work.
• On the use of ICTs in the educational sector: we recommend European countries to allocate a minimum of 1% of their GDP to research and adaptation of innovative and sustainable lCTs for learning purposes. Moreover, further investment should be directed towards strengthening partnerships within and beyond Europe to foster knowledge-transfer of ICT innovations applied to teaching and life-long professional development and its link to climate education.

4. Navigating the Cryptocurrency Waters

• Include digital financial education into secondary education and national financial literacy strategies.
• Increase allocation of research funds to support the development of more energy-efficient crypto mining techniques.
• Consider progressive taxing of gains from cryptocurrencies to specifically address inequalities caused by the use of cryptocurrency.
• Encourage inclusion of youth into discussions with crypto communities as to the respective roles of regulation, soft law, and standards to raise awareness about the risks related to the technology.
• Promote the employment of the Know Your Client and Anti-Money Laundering tools by major crypto currency exchange platforms to increase the level of trust towards the platforms.
• Promote youth-friendly language explaining the functioning and guarantees present or absent at the crypto currency exchange platforms.

Video record

https://youtu.be/qFEpZUpEML8?t=15491

Transcript

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>> I will now hand over the mic to Nadia who will present – we’ll bring to the stage the youth participants so that they can present the youth messages for 2022.

>> NADIA TJAHJA: Thank you very much.

Thank you, Elena, we hope you will stay for one more moment. I would like to invite the YOUthDIG participants to come to the front to come and take a group picture with Elena so we have everybody here collective.

If you could all come forward. Afterwards, after you have come forward, sit at the front for your youth messages. See what I did there!

We’re about to start the keynote. It was really a great opportunity, before we have EuroDIG, we organize YOUthDIG. YOUthDIG stands for the Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance. We bring together 30 young people from all over geographical Europe, the Council of Europe countries, to learn a little bit about the Internet Governance field to prepare them to go to EuroDIG and most importantly to learn from each other from their backgrounds, from their cultures, from their experiences, from their education, from their projects.

We are very, very pleased to have you all here because we went through a rigorous application. Every year we received more and more applications and we do read every single one of them. We fight for the people that we want to see included and it has been a wonderful experience. I will not monopolize this time. I feel you should be hearing from the YOUthDIG organizers. There is a seat free for the fourth organizer, unfortunately, she was not able to join today because she was back home for a project at home. She was a wonderful member of the community and we hope to see her more involved back in the EuroDIG community.

YOUthDIG is always organized by former youth participants. I’m Nadia, I was a YOUthDIG participant in 2018.

>> I participated myself last year, in 2021. It was a nice experience. We had it online, fully. This year, it is in hybrid form but more onsite and I really am jealous to the guys participating this year because you have direct access to the stakeholders and the representatives of different organizations. Yeah. You didn’t have to wait so long to meet them in person. Yeah.

Secondly, I would like to say thank you to the organizers. I represent myself, the eastern part of Europe. Actually I’m from Russia. Despite the fact that Russia was excluded, self-excluded from the European Counsel, I still can come here and present the eastern view on the problems of Internet Governance.

Anyway, let me talk a bit about the event itself. Me and my cohost, my colleague and other organizers, we were leading the first day of YOUthDIG. We tried to talk more about our background and experience. I’m actually a journalist and into online safety and cybercrimes, cybersecurity so, on. We had a few different sessions on it. Yeah. We also had another speaker during the session and she was talking about how to inspire your own community in terms of advocacy and how to be proactive and so on.

We also have an intervention of Patrick, the member of European Parliament. He also talked to us about legislation in the European Union, how changes and what problems it faces right now.

We also had a nice session on mental health with the help of European Leadership Academy. Yeah. Finally, we were talking about online safety, and at the end we wanted to have something in the way of material, so the Online Safety Guide was prepared because we really think that at the end you need to have something to share and I hope it will be available on the website of EuroDIG, on the Wiki page.

With this, I give the floor to Veronica.

>> VERONICA: Hey, everyone.

I was a YOUthDIG participant last year in 2021. I’m going to explain how day 2 actually developed, and I will be very brief not to leave the floor to the presentation of the messages.

In the morning we pull the YOUthDIGers out of the comfort zone and we let them deal with niche area of the internet, of the Internet Governance. In the first part of the morning, in the environmental sustainability. We had a showcase of some example caseloads of green tech, and then the participants managed to, you know, work on detecting problematic area in ICT that had some impact on environmental sustainability and also trying to find solution to that. Some of the work then has been taken into consideration for the development of the youth messages that’s going to be presented today.

The second part, it was about DLTN and blockchain. We had a discussion on philosophical and practice practical narratives regarding the messages that’s going to be presented today, and in the afternoon we gave them the first taste of how EuroDIG and the Internet Governance actually looked like. The participants, they’re newcomers and maybe they had never been in an Internet Governance before. We first explained how EuroDIG unfolded, the programme, giving them tips and actions that, of course, they were – I mean, they put into practice yesterday and today, but in the second part of the session, we have key speakers which explained to us their work and how they had shaped Internet Governance policy. For that, I’m thankful to all.

Finally, we had a cross generational interview. We grouped in three teams the participants and assigned them different topics, environmental sustainability, the multistakeholder model and the internet fragmentation and made them networking with key expert and we would like to really thank the speakers, the key participants, the key speakers that came to us and shared the expertise in the field.

(Listed participants.)

I mean, thank you for sharing the experiences that I am sure they have truly treasured.

That’s all for the second, day 2. I would like to pass the floor.

>> Thank you. I’m a participant of YOUthDIG in 2020, the legendary pandemic YOUthDIG. I’m excited to be here in person. I wanted to start my presentation talking of how the YOUthDIG participants were participating in the EuroDIG itself. I think for all of them, this is the first time that they interact with this group of stakeholders and if you look at this very room, I wouldn’t say that YOUthDIG is a minority, we actively want to be treated as equals and the participants managed to do that through the event, asking questions and networking in the meantime.

When we say youth, usually we think of something as not capable or not experienced enough or perhaps asking weird, unnecessary questions, but we believe that participating in the EuroDIG is an excellent opportunity to prove these statements wrong and say we can country butt by not just saying something, but proposing fresh ideas to initiating new discussions and maybe giving some creative solutions to the problems that have been discussed for years without follow-up. Of course, the youth is not a magic solution and that’s why we believe that this multistakeholder, it is the world that I will remember for the rest of my days, it is a celebration that we, as people coming from different backgrounds, our participations come from journalism, political science, information systems, everybody has a chance to share perspective, ask questions and perhaps a tiny sentence could initiate a thought that can then materialize into action and then perhaps into policy and into some major change and that’s why I wanted to use this opportunity to not only thank our participants for being active and to thank all of the people, stakeholders that interacted and were willing to share their perspective and also to listen.

For those following online, not in this room, thank you, you chose to be here and listen to what the youth messages are, it will be published later in the booklet but this is the moment where we get the chance to have a voice. It is very much appreciated that you chose to share this moment with us.

I will not take too much of your time. Now it is time to present these messages. I would like to pass the microphone to Nadia to explain.

>> CHAIR: Thank you very much.

The youth messages, they’re designed to bring the ideas and thoughts and backgrounds together and to have discussions about the difficult questions that we’re facing. These are a group of people who come from very wide and different backgrounds and have a multistakeholder environment, how it is already difficult and this is the first experience to design the policy messages bringing them not only to EuroDIG but also to the UN IGF. This is a staple that users of 30 different communication methods to optimize the manner in which you communicate with each other, that are active, passive thinkers after speakers and passive speakers. This is why we want to give the floor to the participants themselves to give a speech and to present the youth messages.

I invite you to come to the podium and to present the youth messages.

>> Ladies and gentlemen, it is a true honor and pleasure to be standing today before you, to be able to present our youth messages.

For the last couple of days it was mentioned, the YOUthDIG strived to work and worked tirelessly to get acquainted and to familiarize with the Internet Governance environment. We have discussed different topic, including crypto currency, artificial intelligence, disinformation in the digital age and intersection between technology and ICTs and sustainability. As individuals, the rising concerns in this area have motivated to draft and to present to you today this message.

Throughout this past day, we have spent precious moments networking, engaging in active dialogue, learning that we can carry out after today all of the messages with us back to our countries to explore them further and to communicate this further.

After hearing your concerns as well, the stakeholders, from IT companies, from governments, from NGO, from organizations, in the public, the private sphere, we would like to share that we also heard you and we expect also to be heard. With this in mind, as part of the YOUthDIG, we would like to encourage all of you to take what you have learned today and heard throughout these days and actually take action and be proactive and engage further.

Before we begin with the message, I would like to introduce my colleague who will continue our presentation hoping to inspire your further – inspire you further with a key, emotional message for you all.

Please, I would like to introduce Kateryna with a round of applause.

>> KATERYNA: Thank you very much.

Dear EuroDIG community, today I would like to address you on behalf of the European youth. Particularly coming from Ukraine, I would like to address you on behalf of Ukrainian youth.

The past four months have been very hard for all of us and the full- fledged war of Ukraine with Russia has shaken our perception of the world order, the global governance, Human Rights and the rule of law. We have seen some incredible things like international crowd funding with crypto currencies for humanitarian aid and we saw incredible things like butchers and massacres, again, they’re possible now. This war has separated families but united our nation. It has caused a lot of pain and has given us a lot of incredible and important lessons from the past and for our future.

This war, it has been challenging for the international Internet Governance as well. We see how crucial is digital sovereignty for the political sovereignty, the eGovernment services have become essential for people fleeing their country. We see how difficult it is to differentiate truth from the fake news and to find trustworthy sources of information, especially if all of the news are really emotionally provoking.

Trying to preserve internet as a global network we still witnessed the extreme speeding up of the internet fragmentation. Censorship, website blocking.

We see the extensive, sophisticated youth of attacks against critical infrastructure. We see personnel data leaks, and this makes us even more concerned about our data protection. We see how other powerful tools of artificial intelligence technology can be employed in a difficult setting of a battlefield.

With all of this in mind, I would like to send one main message from the Ukrainian youth, be brave. Stand for your values.

Internet Governance is a multistakeholder framework. It has some space for you. If you believe there is not enough space for you, make it.

If you come from Civil Society, defend the Human Rights. If you’re from the industry, make sure that the policymakers understand the technology that you’re using or developing.

If you’re from the academia, show the others how the entrance areas are connected, that’s from the Internet Governance. If you’re from the government, set the institutional wheels in motion and bridge the gaps between technology and regulation.

Global support and solidarity, it is a matter of survival for Ukrainian people. Inclusive, resilient, innovative Internet Governance is a matter in the reserved for humanity. We need you in for both, for Ukraine and for the world.

Be courage risk factors, open, resilience, learn, education, listen, speak. Stand, connect, share, include, show. Don’t wait, act now. Support Ukraine and support the Internet Governance.

Thank you.

Now I pass the floor back to you.

>> KATJA-ELISABETH: Thank you. I think we should all – this is an amazing message.

As youth, we stand together. For this reason, we would like to begin by presenting our Youth Message in four main area, artificial intelligence, crypto currencies, sustainability and ICTs and finally with disinformation.

First of rule, artificial intelligence in a natural world. We have four points we would like to commend with, address the existing bias and data gaps in terms of gender, race, geography and disability through the exposure of the methodological process behind the data collection and processing.

Secondly, recommendation the open and collaborative forecast of potential societal impacts of the AI systems throughout multistakeholder impact assessments.

Thirdly, request a change in the scope of the debate around accountability from transparency to contestability, where users are also included as stakeholders. Urge to enhance the guarantees for users to safeguard individual and collective digital rights.

The second point, envisioning the future of social media.

Introduce a framework that encourages social and discourages antisocial behavior in the Digital World. This can be applied cross-border and can be the basis for development of further legislation.

Develop a European-based and owned social media platform, that facilitates and encourages democratic participation and where users remain in control of their personal data.

Encourage the flagging of misleading online content and the verification of credible and accurate content by a collaboration between moderators and users.

Introduce media literacy mechanism it’s to maintain society and users informed around the identification of fake news.

Ladies and gentlemen, the third point: Third point addresses the sustainability and ICTs. By ICTs, we mean information and communication technologies. On the role of academia, we stress the need to further increase invention and funding to foster research and innovation concerning the digital, social and green transitions, further improve the outreach strategies to communicate funding opportunities and overcome institutional, geographic, socioeconomic and other persistent barrier, and provide financial mechanisms to diversify and expand the existing and emerging partnerships and networks worldwide.

On the continuous overproduction and overconsumption of data services, processing and storage, as well as of electronic devices and online services, we strongly demand that the 3R, reduce, reuse, recycle approach be an integral element of Internet Governance and digital policy dialogues and decision making. Moreover, acknowledging the decisive role of the end user or consumer, yet noting the persistent digital literacy gap, we encourage a critical perspective in the use of data and technical devices while also supporting efforts to design accessible guidelines to learn how to make efficient and sustainable use of smart technologies.

Further, on the application of ICTs or socioeconomic development, we strongly recommend forecasting critically evaluating their youth and impact in sectors of economy where their application is still in its inception sufficient as but not limited to administration, agriculture – (technical issue)..

We recommend countries to allocate a minimum of the 1% of the GDP to research and adaptation of innovative, sustainable ICTs for learning purposes.

Moreover, further investment should be directed towards strengthening partnerships within and beyond Europe to foster knowledge transfer of IRT innovations applied to teaching and lifelong professional development and its link to climate education.

Finally, moving to the navigating the crypto currency waters, we have the following message. First, include digital financial education in the secondary education and national financial literacy strategies.

Second, increase allocation of research funds to support the development of more energy efficient crypto mining techniques.

Third, consider progressive taxing of gains from crypto currencies to specifically address inequalities caused by the user of the currency. Fourth, encourage inclusion of youth in discussions with crypto communities as to their respective roles of regulation, soft law and standards to raise awareness about the risks related to the technology.

Finally, promote the employment of the know your client and anti-money laundering tools by major crypto currency exchange platforms to increase the level of trust towards the platforms, promoting youth friendly language, explaining the functioning and guarantees present or absent at the crypto currency exchange platforms.

With all that said, thank you for your attention.

We hope that our messages will be taken into account for the further EuroDIG and IGF sessions.

>> CHAIR: Thank you very much for your presentation. It is really great to see all of the hard work that you have been going through and the messages that you presented.

I see that there are four minutes left. I would be willing to open the floor if you would be willing to answer any questions to anyone who had any questions on the floor..

It is a lot to take on with so many ideas coming forward, especially when you hear it for the first time. Definitely, it is something that will be included in the EuroDIG messages, there will be a part of the booklet that you’ll be able to take time and read through. The youth participants, they’re always available for any commentary you may have and hopefully we’ll keep them around in the ecosystem so we can continue to have further discussions on these, and, of course, we have the rest of today if you have any questions that you want to address to them directly. All of them worked very, very hard to bring together the different ideas from dinner communities they live in, they brought together what they wanted to share, these are items that they decided, the topics are from places where we built the agenda together rather than a top-down approach, we use a bottom–up approach and this is what it turns into.

There is a question from the floor, please go ahead.

>> Yes. Thank you very much. I had a question on the taxation point, there was a line saying tax gains from crypto currency, which I think is really interesting indeed. It is very difficult I suspect for some governments but very interesting. The point I wanted to make, I’m sure others will make it more eloquent than I can. I wanted to thank you and thank EurgoDIG for including you in a programme that’s inclusive, I’m not being very eloquent. It is so important I think this is not a separate entity, it is heard in the actual – you’re part of it altogether just because you are young. You know, I’m old, I have my own constituency perhaps.

The messages, they’re so important, but not just the messages, it is not just the messages, it is the way you have taken place with this, you have spoken with passion, intelligence, making points that are really interesting, valid, you have contributed to the social side of this, that you were there last night talking to people, you know, in the coffee breaks, that you’ve approached people, that you talk, that you discuss and you learn and I really wanted to congratulate you and it has been a marvelous experience to be with you these three days.

Thank you.

>> CHAIR: Thank you very much. I thank the youth participants for designing the messages and I would love for to you stand up and we would love to applaud for you. Thank you very much.