On November 3rd, 2020, the Global Commission hosted a panel at the 2020 Internet Governance Forum titled “Protecting the Public Core of the Internet: from Formulation to Implementation.” As a long-time participant at the IGF, the Commission was pleased to be able to host a panel discussing one of the most pressing of the GCSC’s eight norms.
Video (starts at 5:10)
Threats to the DNS system highlight the need to protect the core Internet functionalities. In 2017, the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) issued its flagship norm to protect the public core of the Internet, which is now part of EU law, adopted by the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, and included in the pre-draft of the UN OEWG report. This session provided an overview of recent developments and explored ways in which to advance a concerted multistakeholder approach that embeds the protection of the public core of the Internet.
The panel kicked off with a keynote presentation by GCSC Special Advisor Vint Cerf, who provided an insightful overview of the current stresses and tests on the infrastructure of the internet.
Following Vint Cerf’s keynote, numerous GCSC commissioners discussed the Commission’s efforts in this area. Wolfgang Kleinwächter introduced the GCSC report “Advancing Cyberstability” and the cyberstability framework and norms proposed by the GCSC. Then, Jeff Moss provided an overview of the Public Core norm and highlighted what the threats were. Marietje Schaake discussed the international reception of the norm so far. Finally, Anriette Esterhuysen discussed the next steps that can be taken to advance this norm.
Following the presentations by the GCSC commissioners, we were honored to be joined by several experts from different communities who provided their perspectives on a norm protecting the public core of the internet. These experts were:
- Nathalie Jaarsma, Ambassador at-Large for Security Policy and Cyber, Kingdom of the Netherlands
- Serge Droz, Chair, Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST)
- Sheetal Kumar, Senior Programme Lead, Global Partners Digital
These experts provided numerous insights from their respective sectors. Together with our commissioner’s briefings, this panel painted a comprehensive and informative picture of the current status of a norm to protect the public core of the internet.
The entire panel was moderated by GCSC Director Alexander Klimburg, and can be viewed on YouTube here.
