Day 1 – Wednesday, July 14

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11:00am – 11:15am EDT

Welcome Session

Opening Session with IGF-USA Co-Chairs
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11:15am – 11:30am EDT

Introductory Keynote – Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Opening Keynote from Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
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11:30am – 12:45pm EDT

Building Better Online Markets and Communities

Join for a lightning talk and panel combo session that focuses on recent innovations in digital markets and communities

The Internet enables countless innovations that transform markets and communities, changing the way we hail a ride, order food, stay in touch with our family, access information, and so much more. This session highlights innovations that make online markets and communities more efficient, inclusive, responsible and trusted. We begin with lightning talks with successful innovators who will describe their companies and obstacles and barriers they face. These will be followed by a panel of experts who will discuss optimizing online markets and communities that work better for us all.

Day 1 – Wednesday, July 14

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11:00am – 11:15am EDT

Welcome Session

Opening Session with IGF-USA Co-Chairs
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11:15am – 11:30am EDT

Introductory Keynote – Doreen Bogdan-Martin

Opening Keynote from Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
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11:30am – 12:45pm EDT

Building Better Online Markets and Communities

Join for a lightning talk and panel combo session that explores recent innovations across different digital markets and communities

The Internet enables countless innovations that transform markets and communities, changing the way we hail a ride, order food, stay in touch with our family, access information, and so much more. This session highlights innovations that make online markets and communities more efficient, inclusive, responsible and trusted. We begin with lightning talks with successful innovators who will describe their companies and obstacles and barriers they face. These will be followed by a panel of experts who will discuss optimizing online markets and communities that work better for us all.

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12:45pm – 1:00pm EDT

Break Time

Use this time to take a quick break or network with others.
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1:00pm – 2:15pm EDT

Why don’t we have better digital identity? What could we do if we did?

This panel focuses on how addressing our digital identity problems will lead to more secure, trusted, and inclusive Internet.

27 years after Pete Steiner’s famous cartoon in the New Yorker, we’re still struggling to figure out who is a “dog on the Internet.” Identity provides the attack vector for most major breaches and each year leads to billions of dollars in cyber crime and millions of identity theft victims. The events of the last year – where the impacts of inadequate identity infrastructure have only been exacerbated with the elimination of many in-person transactions – suggests it would be a good time to revisit the state of online identity, and the roles that both government and the private sector might play in identity solutions that can deliver a more secure, trusted, and inclusive Internet.

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2:15pm – 2:45pm EDT

Break Time

Use this time to take a quick break or network with others.
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2:45pm – 4:00pm EDT

100% Online: How to close the Internet access gap once and for all

A comparison of different approaches to combating the digital divide in order to determine the most efficient and effective way to achieve 100% connectivity

The COVID-19 pandemic made clear just how important Internet connectivity is for daily life—from jobs to healthcare to education. And while the Internet helped make life during the pandemic more bearable, millions of Americans, and billions of people around the world, didn’t have access and remain offline today. So how do we close this gap once and for all? And what lessons can policymakers learn from different countries’ approaches to bridging the digital divide?

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4:00pm – 4:15pm EDT

Break Time

Use this time to take a quick break or network with others.
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4:15pm – 5:30pm EDT

The Social Platform Dilemma: Governance Approaches to Moderate Legal But “Objectionable” Content

Where should we draw the line, and who makes those decisions?

This panel explores the role of government, private sector, and civil society in content moderation decisions and reviews how social media platforms are addressing societal and state pressure to moderate and remove content that offends, may be considered hateful or violent, and possibly misleading, but is not illegal in the United States. It explores new models of public-private partnerships and coordination and the risk and opportunities these present.

Day 2 – Thursday, July 15

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10:30am – 12:00pm EDT

Facilitating Interoperability – Bridging the Gaps in Supply Chain Security

How can different sectors address gaps in supply chain security and work together to bridge and resolve them?

We have to move to a proactive security posture to harden the internet.  There are security communities in place, but there is a gap between communities that is often closed in reaction to a threat event.  We need to have that gathering of skills from across industry and government(s) to influence the supply chain to build interoperable secure services, software and components.

Interoperability of the functional Internet is driven by three primary disciplines: policy, technology, and intelligence. While each is mature in its own right, the collaboration between any two and among the three currently leaves potential for improved cooperation where the disciplines intersect.  This panel discussion will explore the gaps in interoperability and how to ensure more interoperability, collaboration, and cooperation in addressing security concerns and threats in the converging supply chains.

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12:00pm – 12:15pm EDT

Break Time

Use this time to take a quick break or network with others.
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12:15pm – 1:15pm EDT

The Road to IoT Security: Industry and Government Working Together

Listen to a panel of representatives from industry and governmental groups that are collaborating to develop a series of international IoT standards.

Across the globe, governments are exploring policy and technical approaches to securing the Internet of Things (IoT). Learn how a coalition of industry groups is working with NIST and other government partners to improve results and raise expectations for security in IoT products and deployment, as well as promote policy harmonization internationally.

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1:15pm - 1:30pm EDT

Break Time

Use this time to take a quick break or network with others.
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1:30pm – 2:45pm EDT

The Future of Data: Privacy Foundations and Legislative Approaches

This panel will discuss how the US can develop privacy legislation that is appropriate for today's digital world.

Please join our panelists for a discussion of how the U.S. can consider and incorporate the foundations of privacy, whether derived from global, human rights principles or the US Constitution, into federal legislative efforts. The discussion will take a thematic approach building from a discussion of the definition of privacy to the construction of a framework that should be applied to legislative initiatives. The panel will discuss the tensions between operational and legislative imperatives and what businesses can reasonably be expected to execute in compliance with proposed laws. How can Congress design a forward looking, risk-based law that will provide a strategic approach for today’s environment and flexibility for the future?

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2:45pm - 3:00pm EDT

Break Time

Use this time to take a quick break or network with others.
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3:00pm – 4:00pm EDT

Reexamining Antitrust in a Digital Economy

This panel will examine current debate and proposals surrounding antitrust law in the US

Few policy issues have seen the sort of meteoric rise in attention that antitrust has received over the past several years. Driven by the growing importance of digital markets and online platforms, antitrust has moved to the forefront of our modern political landscape. Perhaps not surprisingly, various reform proposals have started to emerge from both sides of the political spectrum. Advocates of reform argue that the United States’ current approach to competition policy is ill-equipped to deal with the problems posed by a twenty-first century, digital economy and that a new approach is needed to reign in the anticompetitive conduct engaged in by the dominant firms. On the other hand, skeptics of reform argue that our long-standing approach to antitrust enforcement is robust enough to handle these problems effectively and that any proposals for reform should be narrowly tailored to the specific issues they are trying to address. This panel will be an in-depth discussion surrounding the United States’ unique approach to antitrust law as well as several of the reform proposals that are currently under consideration. It will also highlight some of the finer points of the current debate surrounding antitrust reform and the impact that reform is likely to have on various sectors of the economy.

 

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4:00pm – 5:15pm EDT

Scenarios for 2026: Will everything work everywhere?

What could cause fragmentation going forward, and how should governments respond to it?

This session will examine the political forces and drivers that could cause fragmentation of the Web and the Cloud–both within the United States and worldwide. Speakers will share examples of how such fragmentation could be enforced (through firewalls, filters, real-name ID requirements, new laws for platforms, data localization requirements, and criminalization of certain technologies or business practices). To illustrate how this could happen, a series of scenarios have been developed that reflect how governments might respond to: (1) cyber attacks, (2) growing concerns about online privacy and surveillance, (3) worries about “foreign” content and apps, and (4) abuse of the Internet for criminal activities and terrorism. Panelists will also describe ways to address these concerns without partitioning the Internet or imposing a patchwork of different national regulations on the global Internet.

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5:30pm – 7:00pm EDT

IGF-USA 2021 Closing Reception

Join us for an opportunity to celebrate with the community with a course in mixology, using Internet governance themed cocktails, followed by an opportunity to network with other attendees.