#IGF2026 Open Consultation: Kenyan host propose an overarching theme for this year's IGF: Governing the Future of Intelligence: Sovereignty, Trust, and an Open Internet

The Internet Governance Forum 2026 (#IGF2026) 1st Open Consultation meeting has just begun in Nairobi. If you didn't register to participate remotely already, you can watch the YouTube livestream here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oge...

You know you're becoming rabid naturalist when you save the leech that made a very bloody mess of your ankle for its very own photo & video shoot... and you admire the lovely Morse code-esque pattern on its body. For anyone wondering, its species is Chtonobdella bilineata, BTW.

Not at all related to digital policy or the UN, but was so excited to find a wombat burrow all by myself, I just had to share! (There’s a red-bellied black snake I’ve seen 3 times nearby, so I’m very careful where I walk)

"Several buildings were targeted throughout the day, inc the offices of the UN’s International Telecommunications Union" From video, it looks like it was the cafeteria attached to the Varembé building that was targeted. Good thing that's the ITU building being torn down & replaced with a new HQ!

The USA has started restricting access to US-based tech, with knock-on effects for foreign-born workers in the very tech companies whose tech is being banned for use by anyone not a US-citizen. Now nobody anywhere, inc. in USA, can use Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.

For anyone who thinks intergovernmental meetings are boring, we aren't even half a day into the first day of the #ICANN86 GAC meeting &: - 2 GAC representatives have lost their voice - A GAC rep has their spouse sitting with them - A bird has flown into the room

#ICANN86 GAC: There have been 27 new GAC members since ICANN85, with a total of 184 GAC Member economies & 41 observers (IGOs, etc). Ian Sheldon, Australia, will assume the role of GAC Chair at the end of #ICANN87 in Bali. To invoke a sporting chant: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

#ICANN86 is underway in Seville, Spain. ICANN86 days don't start until 10:00 CEST, which means it's well and truly dark already for me here at 6 pm in the Australian winter. As usual, I'll be focussing on the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) discussions. Details of the meeting: icann86.sched.com

"Kendall said the govt was “looking at not only boosting trusted sources of information [...] But also enabling people to reset their algorithms. [...] lots of people think they see this stuff coming towards them. And it should be much easier for people to say ‘let’s have a reset’”

1/ I've clearly spent too much time on the UN ODET website today. I've found that under the "Stay Up to Date" section, in amongst 4 official UN-badged social media accounts, the Tech Envoy's personal Substack account is included.

Registration for the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance, 6-7 July 2026, Geneva, is now open. Note: it's onsite participation only. Not clear if there'll be a live webcast announced closer to the date, possibly via the UN Web TV portal. www.un.org/global-dialo...

UN ODET launched another AI initiative this past week. The name of the lab sounds like they took direct inspiration from the name of the "AI for Global Good" forum that ITU launched many years ago.

Finally! News of the #IGF2026 Open Consultations & Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) Meeting: 24 -26 June 2026 UN Office at Nairobi (UNON), Kenya & online Last year was the earliest ever IGF & this year's is going to be the latest ever organized IGF.

Just what we need: yet another process to study the use of AI. This time with added religiosity.

On 22 May, 8-9:30 UTC, UN ODET & UN Habitat are co-organizing a session, Localizing the Global Digital Compact at the City Level, at the World Urban Forum in Baku. Details: wuf.unhabitat.org/event/wuf13/... UN Web TV webcast link: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k13...

While the US, & others, have long expressed concerns about both China & Russia hacking digital devices of people who visit those 2 countries, it's worth remembering the US recently extended FISA with Section 702 intact, allowing continued warrantless electronic surveillance of foreign targets.

The list of 2026 IGF MAG members is finally out. It's been so long between the nomination deadline & actual deadline that at least 1 MAG member has changed jobs & no longer represents the geo region he was originally nominated in.

'[Jimmy Wales] said teaching children to get used to turning on their cameras when prompted by a tech platform was not a good idea. "You’re pressuring really bad, unsafe behaviour on kids," he said.'

Lots of digital policy happening in the UN sphere this coming week: Geneva: - Week 2 of ITU Council (webcast available to TIES holders) - Geneva Cyber Week, 4-8 May (mix of onsite & online sessions) -- inc. UNIDIR Cyber Stability Conference, 4-5 May NYC: - STI Forum, 6-7 May (webcast on UNwebTV)

While ICANN has now opened applications for the 2nd round of new gTLD applications, there's still some 1st round unsuccessful applications hanging around from 2012, steadfastly refusing to go away, like this one: itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/cor...

It's failings like this that are prompting governments outside the US to look for ways to develop global standards for AI, as well as legislation to hold AI developers accountable when they chose to prioritize pure profit over public safety.

So a few geeky white guys & their rich stockholders get richer & richer while at the same time sacking the workforce that made their increasingly obscene wealth possible: "More than 92,000 tech employees have been laid off globally so far this year, according to the tracking site Layoffs.fyi."

The good old "move fast & break things" mantra of the tech industry is working so well for humanity!

Apart from the immediate fallout of everyone having to cancel travel to RightsCon, I hope Zambia never wants to host an international event ever again because this precedent means no future event organizer will risk holding their event in a country where it may be cancelled days out from being held.

UN CSTD 29th session, Chengetai Masango: #IGF2026 venue is Nairobi, Kenya - 2nd time IGF in Nairobi. 2026 MAG will be announced "soon" (note: a number of past proposed dates for announcement have been & gone - still no news... weirdly, UNSG seems more concerned with averting potential WWIII)

29th UN CSTD Session, D Bogdan-Martin, ITU SG: the Independent Scientific Panel on AI (an outcome of the Global Digital Compact) will hold its 1st physical meeting on Wednesday this week in Madrid.

29th UN CSTD, D Bogdan-Martin, ITU SG: Al's reshaping economies, public services, how we learn & work & it's doing so faster than any tech ever b4 it, inc. the Internet. The question: will that transformation b an engine of growth 4 all everywhere or will its benefits b reserved 4 the best resourced

The UN CSTD's 29th Session begins in Geneva today. CSTD members will review the annual progress report on WSIS implementation, among many other topics. Opening plenary (now) is webcast: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1z... More information on the meeting: unctad.org/meeting/comm...

"Expanded [digital device] inspection powers and/or enforcement postures do not just affect individual travelers; they also expose the organizations that employ them, and the compliance challenges they present increasingly span multiple jurisdictions."

"AI's enabled Iran & others 2 communicate directly w Western audiences more effectively than ever b4 [...] using tools largely trained on Western data, making them ideal 4 creating culturally appropriate content. This is what authoritarian countries wanting 2 target the West have lacked in the past"

Just image the UN had appointed someone the calibre of Brian Cox as Global Advocate for Human-centric Digital Governance instead of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who most people under 40 have never heard of (& even I need to keep googling his name).

With MAGA fragmenting & Trump's anger escalating, I assume at some point scales tip & Trump is ousted/forced to resign. Depending on how long it takes, what happens to all this architecture of his? Radical remodeling? Hacked down by the people, a la Berlin Wall? New museum of American fascism?

The latest IGF strengthening process is an Expert Group Meeting, 14-15 April, with many of the exact same bubble of folks who've been discussing how to improve IGF for many years now. Reminds me of that cliche about insanity being doing the same thing again & again but expecting a different result!

1/ The Chair of the new UN Global Mechanism on cybersecurity is holding her 1st informal dialogue (via Microsoft Teams) with interested stakeholders, 24 April, 12:30 to 14:00 UTC. To participate, register by 22 April, 16:00 UTC via:

A reminder: last week at the UN Global Mechanism on Cybersecurity, Russia emphasized its key role in kickstarting a number of processes to tackle issues related to security of ICTs at the UN, dating back to 1998 (inc. the new cybercrime convention & the cyber OEWG that preceded G-Mech)

Employed to feed the AI machine in the short-term - complete with negative mental health impacts & having to check your ethics at the door - so the US billionaires can get richer by laying even more people off in the long term:

There is no more appropriate day to have posted this than the day we almost started WWIII.

I spent my morning doom scrolling as we came way too close to WWIII. Now I'm wondering, in my very niche line of work, if the 2026 IGF MAG announcement will be pushed back yet again because, you know, the UNSG currently has slightly bigger priorities than the weird world of Internet governance.

Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik: "The fact that the Iranian government continues to block internet access suggests that the structures of the regime have not changed very much"

"While the drumbeat of companies that say AI will help them do more with less is getting louder, it’s unclear whether AI is actually driving cuts. Some companies may be “AI-washing” layoffs, using the techn as a convenient excuse for a slowing labor market, lagging consumer demand or rising costs"

"More than 92 million people in Iran have been cut off from the internet for over 30 days under a severe nationwide blackout, but one man with access is using a dizzying combination of memes, trading tips and sarcasm to play Donald Trump at his own propaganda game."

An interesting read. Iranian citizens risk being being targeted by Iranian authorities for using VPNs as well as being defrauded by dodgy VPN operators taking advantage of people simply wishing/needing to have access to the Internet & information during a time of war.

Wonder how many geek kids found this on their Easter egg hunt. Also, love how far Easter has drifted from Christian appropriation of pagan fertility festival to commercial appropriation of movies that failed to update their depiction of dinosaurs, even when science proved they had feathers.

When I first read this, I giggled at plucky NZer making a statement about -ve impact of Trump's Iran folly on the rest of us. But now I'm wondering if it's possible for some brave souls in the many countries facing fuel & food shortages to sue US govt &/or Trump businesses, in US, for compensation

The Australian government is keen to build an AI-enabled economy, & has set 5 key parameters to ensure datacentres don't gobble up resources at the expense of citizens, but from this article, it seems Aussie communities don't think that's good enough.

"The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has drawn a clear line: age assurance obligations do not override privacy law. [...] The 'we had to comply' argument has limits. Compliance with age assurance obligations do not excuse privacy non-compliance."

"[As well as local AI developers,] we are also inviting global platforms active in Central Asia, such as Google, Meta, and others. It’s important to have a diverse range of market players on board if we want efficient self-regulation."

This is really cool: "Unlike the compute-heavy AI models developed by Silicon Valley, the smaller models being built in India, Indonesia, & elsewhere can run on low-end devices & low-bandwidth networks [...] The models are not only cost-efficient, they also have a lower impact on the environment."

"A recent survey found that 86% of college students use AI regularly, which means that 14% are lying to survey-takers." Ouch.