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Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum

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Welcome to APrIGF 2026 Town Hall 3

Kathmandu, Nepal (Hybrid)

Wednesday, 7 October 2026

Local Host

Secretariat

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Drafting Committee Co-Chairs

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Local Host

Secretariat

Elizabeth Pollard

Graduate Officer

.au Domain Administration (auDA)

Dr Syed Sultan Kazi

Director

Council for Social and Digital Development

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Local Host

Secretariat

Townhall Guidance:

  • We will go through each session in order
  • ~5 minutes for discussion per session
  • Additional comments can be submitted via the commenting platform for the Synthesis Document: https://comment.rigf.asia/

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Sessions on Day 3, 7 October 2026

Beyond Access: Who Keeps Children Safe Online Once They are Connected?

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

Sub-themes:

  • Future of APrIGF & Multistakeholder Ecosystem
  • Digital Resilience and Building of Trust
  1. What is one practical step that could make online participation safer for children in underserved communities?
  2. What role should each stakeholder group, such as government, parents, and local communities, play in keeping children safe online?

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From Technical Debt to Strategic Liability: Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Resilience, and Internet Governance in the Asia-Pacific

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

Sub-themes:

  • Digital Resilience and Building of Trust
  • What should governments and organisations prioritise first: retiring legacy systems, improving lifecycle management, or preparing for new threats such as AI-enabled attacks?
  • How can the region encourage investment in long-term cyber resilience when the benefits are often difficult to see until something goes wrong?

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From Shutdown to Solidarity: Co-Designing a South Asia Rapid-Response Protocol for Internet Shutdowns

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

Sub-themes:

  • Digital Resilience and Building of Trust
  • Universal and Meaningful Connectivity
  1. How can countries share learnings from shutdowns across borders, to reduce duplication of work?
  2. What would make a rapid-response protocol genuinely useful in practice across a variety of contexts and regions?

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The Right to Be Forgotten by AI: Who Owns Human Knowledge in the Age of Foundation Models?

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

Sub-themes:

  • AI Governance for Good
  1. After information has been used to train an AI model, what mechanisms should be available to communities or individuals who didn’t want their information used in that way to begin with?
  2. Who should have a say over knowledge that belongs to a community or culture, rather than just to an individual?

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APrIGF Fellowship Presentation

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

  • Any questions or comments for the 2026 APrIGF Fellows?
  • Anything the Fellows would like to share or highlight?

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When Submarine Cables Go Dark: From Public Fear to Internet Governance through Open Research and Community Engagement

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

Sub-themes:

  • Digital Resilience and Building of Trust
  • Universal and Meaningful Connectivity
  1. What do people actually need to know when a submarine cable is disrupted - and how can the technical community share that information clearly?
  2. What can civil society do to prepare for and respond to outages in their communities?

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Appealing Hate Speech: Using the Grievance Appellate Committee to Hold Platforms Accountable

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

Sub-themes:

  • Digital Resilience and Building of Trust
  1. What should people be able to do when a platform makes the wrong decision about harmful or hateful content?
  2. How can we hold platforms accountable for moderation decisions that are increasingly being made using automation and AI?

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Open Dialogue Roundtable on Role of APrIGF in Implementing the Permanent Mandate of the IGF

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

  1. How can APrIGF serve as a forum to improve digital resilience in the Asia Pacific region?
  2. What should the Asia-Pacific Internet governance community be preparing for now?
  3. Did anything you heard during this year's APrIGF change or expand your perspective on an issue?

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Any other thoughts on sessions from across the past three days?

(Time permitting)

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Local Host

Secretariat

All participants are expected to follow the APrIGF Code of Conduct: igf.asia/CodeofConduct

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Thank you for participating in the APrIGF Town Halls!

Local Host

Secretariat

Help us capture your perspective in the Synthesis Document:

Participate and put in your comments at comment.aprigf.asia

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