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EuroDIG 2010: where are we going ?

By EDRi · May 5, 2010

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [EuroDIG 2010: Wie geht es weiter? | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1902]

Between the 29-30 April 2010, Madrid was the host of the third European
Dialogue of Internet Governance (EuroDIG), an open platform for informal and
inclusive discussion and exchange on public policy issues related to
Internet Governance between stakeholders from all over Europe.

This year the event gathered more than 300 representatives from all domains:
private and public sector, civil society or media. Other 60 Internet participants
joined the event and interacted mainly through the 10 remote participation
hubs organized in other European cities.

EuroDIG was the right place to debate a lot of major issues related to
digital civil rights. This included a plenary on “Online content policies in
Europe – where are we going?”, where EDRi was represented by Meryem Marzouki
that tackled the latest EU proposal of blocking child pornography website.
All the participants agreed that deleting the illegal websites should be the
logical main activity, with “a huge demand for improvements in international
cooperation, particularly by creating efficient procedures and thus speeding
up content takedown processes.”

The presentations of the Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov and of the
Avniye Tansug, editor of the Turkish edition of cyber-rights.org showed what
levels of blocking can be reached if the door is open to the possibility of
such a procedure. In Russia, the Internet Service providers are encouraged
to block certain sites on their own initiative and in Turkey, there are now
about 3700 websites officially blocked .

Another plenary was dedicated to the subject of “Global privacy
standards for the internet and working world” where Andreas Krisch
participated from EDRi’s side. The solutions provided included the need for
global privacy standards to enable the development of human rights friendly
future technologies. And that privacy by design and by default needs to be
the fundamental design principle for future technologies and applications.

The participants made reference to the importance of the data protection
education, the Madrid Civil Society Declaration, the Council of Europe
Convention 108 and the “Resolution of Madrid”- a Joint Proposal of
International Standards on the Protection of Privacy.

The same problem – legal certainty through the adoption of global privacy
standards – was raised from a slightly different perspective in the workshop
on cloud computing by Katitza Rodriguez, International Rights Director from
EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

Increased education on data protection and Internet issues, not only to
children but also to adults, was also the main key message of the EuroDIG
local hub in Bucharest that debated the topics of “E-privacy and protection
of children in the digital world”. Comic books or videos produced at a
national or international level were analysed to find the best solution for
education purposes.

The EuroDIG debates are used to prepare the contributions of European
stakeholders to the Internet Governance Forum to be held in Lithuania on
14-16 September 2010.

EuroDIG – reports and video (29-30.04.2010)
http://www.eurodig.org/

Remote participation to EuroDIG
http://www.eurodig.org/eurodig-2010/programme/information/remote-participation

EuroDIG: Europe´s strong views on openness and responsibility(3.05.2010)
http://www.i-policy.org/2010/05/eurodig-europes-strong-views-on-openness-and-responsibility.html

EuroDIG participants prefer Delete instead Web Blocking (only in German,
30.04.2010)
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/EuroDIG-Teilnehmer-bevorzugen-Loeschen-statt-Websperren-991002.html

Debate on privacy in the digital environment (only in Romanian,
3.05.2010)
http://www.curierulnational.ro/Eveniment/2010-05-03/Dezbatere+pe+tema+vietii+private+in+mediul+digital