IGF-USA 2022

IGF-USA 2022 was a hybrid forum held in Washington, D.C. and online on July 21, 2022, bringing together leaders from government, industry, and non-profits to discuss the most important issues facing the Internet.

Key Topics and POVs

Topic	Antitrust in digital markets
POVs	The issue is not so much economic anti-trust, but political anti-trust power on social media platforms; offers "middleware" as a solution. Middleware refers to third-party algorithms inserted into individuals' social media feeds and searches (filters) which could decentralize the flow of information. Barak Richman
Topic	Content Moderation
POVs	You can't disambiguate content and algorithms Shannon McGregor
Topic	Legislation
POVs	In the U.S., there are pushes for too much content moderation (blue states) and too little moderation (red states), Steve DelBianco, NetChoice	Amplification should be regulated (or companies need to be able to identify what is dangerous so they can remove it) Steve DelBianco	There should be legislation to compel transparency on platforms’ decision-making processes (about content moderation) so that researchers can analyze it and shape public pressure Shannon McGregor
Topic	end-to-end encryption
POVs	The overturning of roe vs. wade has put consumer data privacy and its significance in the spotlight Eric Geller, John Morris	Eric Geller Can we have physical and cyber security? Why should the FBI be trusted to develop E2E encryption when the private sector hasn’t achieved it	E2E Encryption would hide bad actors involved in CSAM and trafficking by making reporting impossible Yiota Souras	There is the perennial problem of bad actors gaming the system; legislation asking makers to make encryption breakable makes it tough to sell it abroad John Morris	We need a better definition of end-to-end encryption that involves formal features, like perfect forward security; a list of thresholds and user expectations so that apps don't turn into honey pots, because they’re actually leaky although they say they're encrypted; private conversation shouldn’t be impossible Mallory Knodel	This issue raises concerns over the fourth amendment and lawful access Darrin Jones	It’s lucrative in authoritative regimes to disrupt encryption Mallory Knodel
Topic	IOT
POVs	peer-to-peer makes it difficult to stop the damage of botnet but C2 servers enable holding individuals accountable Wayne Jacobs	IoT is an attack vector Chris Boyer	Standards are becoming geopolitical fodder; harmonization is a problem especially in Europe, which appears to be interested in fragmentation. Allies at least should be working together Chris Boyer baseline standards for IoT devices must become global because networks are global; however, they remain protectionist because govt responses are fragmented Elaine Newton