🛰️ IGF 2025 | Day Zero – Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) Symposium at IGF 2025 | From the Tunis Agenda to WSIS+20: New Internet Infrastructure as a Pillar of Sustainable Development
🗓️ 23 June 2025 | 🕘 09:00–10:10 | 📍 IGF 2025, Lillestrøm, Norway
The future of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process will be a central topic at the 2025 Internet Governance Forum. While many advocate for renewing WSIS, this should not be assumed as automatic. WSIS+20 represents a critical and possibly final opportunity to fully endorse the Tunis Agenda’s original vision—an inclusive, rights-based, multistakeholder framework that remains incomplete nearly two decades later. This discussion will be further explored during the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) Symposium at IGF 2025. More information on the symposium here.
Research behind this panel, as part of an Internet Society Foundation research project co-led by Dr. Berna Akcali Gur (CCLS, Queen Mary University Law School; UNU-CRIS) and Dr. Joanna Kulesza demonstrates that the digital landscape has transformed significantly since WSIS. The Tunis Agenda must now be reconsidered to address contemporary challenges such as satellite Internet infrastructure, digital sovereignty, data governance, and human rights. WSIS+20 should serve as a moment of recommitment with tangible measures reflecting today’s geopolitical and technological realities.
To remain relevant, the WSIS process must demonstrate its capacity to achieve meaningful progress or risk being supplanted by alternative governance frameworks better adapted to current digital complexities. It thus provides a critical juncture for reflecting on and shaping a more inclusive and forward-looking Internet governance architecture.
📄 Our WSIS Position: From Łódź to Geneva
The expert discussion at the Norway meeting will focus on the final SSIGIL document: “From Łódź to Geneva: On the Future of Satellite Internet”
🔗 Read the full report here
This document, developed by an international team of researchers and practitioners, emphasizes:
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Access to the Internet as a human right;
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The critical role of satellite infrastructure in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
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The need for coherent legal frameworks to strike a balance between global data flows and concerns over digital sovereignty.
This is not a nostalgic nod to 2005 but a reaffirmation of the enduring relevance of the Tunis Agenda’s original ambitions in the face of today’s technological and geopolitical complexities. Although the relevance of the ITU WSIS Summit is increasingly questioned, we acknowledge its positive outcomes and regard it as a valuable platform for multistakeholder dialogue—including discussions on its own reform—within the broader context of global digital governance amid today’s rapidly evolving landscape.
This symposium is hosted by the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet), and we are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to their programme. The Internet Society Foundation has supported the involvement of our panellists, reflecting its ongoing commitment to fostering research and dialogue on Internet governance. Together, their work offers evidence-based recommendations for integrating emerging technologies and protecting digital rights within a renewed WSIS framework.
🎙️ Panel Participants
Jonathan Liebenau, London School of Economics
Joanna Kulesza, University of Łódź
Roxana Radu, University of Oxford
Moderator: Jamal Shahin, Vrije Universiteit Brussels
📢 Join us at IGF 2025 in Lillestrøm on 23 June for this critical discussion. This is more than an academic debate—it is a real opportunity for change.