The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
***
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Dear colleagues, it is a pleasure to be here to be with us, your company, once again. The fourth time in my career. I would also like to thank the hosting country of Saudi Arabia for organizing the forum at such a mag enough September venue. My name is Vasily Zudin. I work with IT connections across continent for the brighter and more just digital future for all of us
We contribute to the activities of the IGF and also operate as an actor hosting IGF 2021. Once in the private business, there are four great significant to us. It is our aim after all to build bridges of IT cooperation and to promote new approaches through internet governance today to have experienced experts with us on the panel who hopefully share the versions of the global world and the future of ICT, sector development and the global south. GDS is in an ambiguous argument that paves the way for disputes. A great deal disagree with numerous points of the compact with the function that was given to big tech companies and that fact that the compact is a soft load document not effective the real states of affairs.
However today we are not here to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of GDC, we want to have an understanding of the problems yet to solve. It is a way to breach growing digital divides and avoid a new area of digital colonialism where there is limited opportunities for the rest. Through engaging meaningful discussion and most importantly technologists we can strike a balance between private interests, government policies and interest of users. With that focal point in mind I would like to pass my word to our first speaker Olga Makarova, director at MTS, an active member who proposed several years an open unique mathematical formula to calculate the level of internet fragmentation and today she wants to offer us a solution preserving linguistic diversity. The stage and mic is yours.
>> Olga Makarova: Thank you, just a moment. Hello, let's start, first, how many languages are there in the world? There are about 7,168 languages. That's awesome. The linguistic diversity provides diversity to cultures. And also there's a downside, we can hardly understand the person who speaks many languages so we have to use one language to communicate but people whose native language is not the dominant language you may communicate are often not asked to speak publicly. And the language barriers are inevitable. Today the dominant language in the world is English. Here are languages of the most focus. 67% of the words are written in English. The top 101 from Nigeria and Kenya but their most famous books were written in English. In 1998.
In Zimbabwe book fair, the mandatory launch the best African books. The project compiled at least over 100 best books by African writers to draw attention to their books. It was published in February 2002 and only five books from this list were translated into Russian language, all these books was English. That is when you know how many Russian books have been translated into other languages understandable to people living in Africa. So English has been and remains the dominant language. People with limited English proficiency face additional barriers to accessing knowledge. Another important area where language barriers need to be removed. They are very patient and often speak different languages. Language barriers, I call them problems around the world. Misunderstanding, a failure to communicate is the main cause of misdiagnosis and there are rising consequences of incorrect treatment. On the slide you can see by culture but talking about the cases, this is not an option, the lack of legal framework is especially in languages and financial constraints do not allow this to be used. Mistranslation where you write and speak sentences and AI translate to break down language barrier. The slide shows some translation. And it is higher for western European language groups. We lack the Asian groups. Some data from Goldman Sachs and Stanford University state that investments in AI will reach 200 billion dollars. Stanford University's artificial intelligence in the report notes that the most significant AI systems, the most common class of systems for all language base. Some historical texts. In early 2000 some IT companies used the experimental dictionary to read through all machine learning systems. The call was a universal concept built from this specific. Google Translate was launched in 2006 and used AI generated means rather than translation and was created with little or no input from linguists. It is used in a different approach, statistical. The huge amount of data became a basis. In 2009, people from Google team published the paper called the unreasonable effective of data, this is the type of article where unreasonable effects are automated in the major sciences. Written by physicists in 1960s sciences involve people rather than elementary particles.
Have proven more resilient. In the paper we will never exceed in proper language without demonstrating with simple model and large amount of data. Much more effective and complex model within sufficient data. Good advice to follow the data and choose the representation that can use unsupervised learning or unlabeled data. In 2019 Canadian scientist published a paper called a bitter lesson, we have to learn the bitter lessons to build the thing that has not worked. He concludes that there's only some successful. To follow these guidelines we need ‑‑ we need open and unfragmented internet capable of handling massive volumes. But, the internet also been and remains a set of structural fragments. Only the internet protocols and the ability of difference they call these to make the internet open and unfragmented in line of environment. So our networks need to be able to connect and interconnect but no one connects to interconnects without paying. Therefore we need to be able to pay for services we need.
But today we see a new type of holders. Banks, banks have the processing the reality and appropriateness of payment which do not take into account threats and consequences of internet. Many are blocked payments and communication and internet services from Russia and other areas without any explanation from the site. The risk of internet implementation are not ‑‑ but if one party fail to pay for services, this will result in the termination of all services and breaking down of connections. The Russian language segment of the internet and other segments of internet connects to the global internet Russian, maybe separated. The result will be the technical level of implementation. Banks don't want to achieve anything in terms of internet fragmentation, they just don't think about it. Bank managers are confident but no one will blame them if the internet fragments but they are terrified that one wrong payment due to sanctions or more precisely due to the bank's compliance managers' understanding of the sanctions policy will prove fatal to both their careers and banking business. Alas we are witnessing a perfect example of miles' law in action, where you stand depends on where you sit. We don't have a suitable solution today the range of stakeholders turned out to be wider. You can see an example of the impact of such measures on the internet. Today carriers and users from Kazakhstan and some other countries get the cheapest and access to the European segment of the internet. The internet business may also suffer. It would be advisable to provide for some certification procedures of carriers through the ITU which would allow them to pay for telecommunication and internet services without additional checks and assessments by banks the geopolitical situation is changing dramatically the problem with payments may affect different countries not only Russia. Let's try to work together. Let's try to keep the internet open and unfragmented. Thank you.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Olga, thank you very much for your highly informative input.
I am proud of the fact that we can share our own experience here on this stage. As you mentioned Russia is activating their own segment of the internet we also have our own TOD, speaking of all things Russian our next speaker is new coming to the IGF community yet he has his own highly competitive digital product which he looks forward to sharing with the world he is founder of the social network. Simon, what makes your social network so different from other major players and how to intent to promote it across the countries of global youth? The microphone is yours, please.
>> SABA TIKU BEYENE: Hello, everyone, okay, let's discuss about future of business social network on or maybe how IC ‑‑ how can IC goal so if we discuss about personal data, big data platform, social networks, it means that our future of the world will be not in one area, it will be many, many centers of information. Mostly it depends of structure of data, cause the main reason of all system is that the data is a new goal in all systems. What I mean? Mostly countries use free source or absolutely free programs and don't pay any money but we need to understand that if you don't pay nothing you pay by information. And all information costs money. So it's in new age I want to repeat one more time the data become the new gold. So what is the main global challenges we have now on this ‑‑ in this area? Firstly, as my colleague said before, it's ensuring country sovereign. Also protection of personal data. Development of own technology. And access to global B2B market and global human market. So in our business social network which become the biggest one on Russian market and some markets on Soviet Union countries border we think that business social network can be much useful than original social network like Facebook and other one. Because the main goal which can connect people from many countries, it's job, it's trading, it's deals because everyone need to pay salary to make money for their family. So the one of the way to structure such kind of application is global investments. So we develop our application as a super app with mostly effective way to make deals across the country. We include B2B marketplace, trading platform, platform with government contracts, job vacancy, investment platform and so it's our new view of how to make global social business network. In otherwise, we make the unique offer to other country. We going by absolutely new way how to... how to take new markets. We give it by license to countries. So in all over the world we make the first site global social network which each country have its own part in that territory. So it make a big opportunities because the personal data will stay on the country, investments stay in the country. People find the best country in their country. So it's make every country more standard without a global leader. So it's one of the little piece of our system. Thank you.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Thank you very much for your input. What do you believe Russian tech in general may offer to the developing world?
>> Simon: One of the future we connect to the social network to business social network and to platform. What it means? We know that the most country have a big part of government economy inside. For example it means tenders, some kind of deals with government and sometimes nobody knows about this and don't have information. And we try to connect people, business and government in one app. Not only people and business. We connect all three side. I repeat one more. Business. People. And government in one application.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Thank you very much. Thank you, Simon for your really interesting report. It's fantastic. It is pleasant to see you in reality especially among our speakers and you also a major contributor to IGF processes. Open group is quite active in Europe, Asia and Africa, what is your view concerning the global digital combat and most importantly how may global south in your view benefit from it?
>> So thank you very much have a silly. For this introduction.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's truly an honor to be here in Riyadh among distinguished experts and leaders. I would like to extend my gratitude and organizers for facilitate thing dialogue. It works now? Hi, it works yeah? It's okay? ‑‑ of the digital world. When it's cast in the framework I see it not just as a framework but for acquiring a digital future. The compact holds the promise of addressing some of the most pressing challenges we face today, particularly for the global south. For many developing countries like in Serbia where I came from the compact could be become a catalyst for change bridging the digital divide, reducing inequality and fostering economic growth to achieve this three key priorities stands out. First, we must ensure affordable and universal connectivity. There's a big problem and we discuss always this topic. Speaking about Africa, for example, when we attended IGF one of the key talks was connectivity of Africa because we know that Africa is not well‑connected continent speaking about some countries which don't have universal access to internet and that's the big problem so access to internet is no longer a luxury but a fundamental driver of education, health care and economic opportunity. When we speak about health care I personally participated in some projects in Balkans and Serbia, speaking about digitalization of health care industry. And it's very important to, if you have an opportunity to have a really good connection, I was speaking about digital technologies for your doctors, speaking about electronic health records, about everything, modern health care industry could offer to you. So second the compact should encourage investments in local digital ecosystems and this is really important speaking about fragmentation and digital fragmentation processes. We must empower entrepreneurs, nurture talent and enable the creation of technologies that are tailored the needs of local communities and this is also important speaking about current geopolitical moment when we see different technological zones and I always mention this when I was in China for example you are not allowed to use western services like American services, Microsoft and all others. For example, when you are in the United States invest in Europe and generally Europe we have huge discussion about the equipments, Chinese equipments and all other aspects of, they would say no secure, nonsecure hardware. And, for example, as I know because I spent a lot of time in Russia, they have really spoken about data and about data for our citizens. They force Russian government, force all data of Russian citizens should be stored in the territory of Russian Federation. This is really important and I support this. Third we must foster international collaboration that knowledge and technology flow freely and when I was in Moscow a few days ago we discussed how China and Russia need systems to test each other's technology.
When we speak about technology transfer it's very important that the other side and the side that will receive technology have opportunity to test and to make some test speaking about data and who will control data so this is really important. However, we can't ignore the realities of digital colonialism. Much of the global south still finds it in the position technology, serves the interest of giants rather than local populations. International organisations governments and private sects must address this. This can be achieved by promoting open standards, developing localized infrastructure and creating fear and regulatory frameworks. So let me be clear at the end this is not a simple target acquired unified global afford to whole powerful actors accountable while simultaneously empowering economists to shape their own digital futures.
But generally I remain optimistic, we discuss what about what we have to do in the upcoming years with initiatives like the digital ‑‑ global digital compact. We have a unique opportunity to redefine the rules of engagement in the digital space in closing, let me emphasize this, it includes information and accountability remain in this core. So together, we have the chance to create a digital world where no one is left behind. So thank you very much.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Thank you. Do you accept that the organisations have done the work and keep tech giants at bay? Can we say about that?
>> Speaking about the giants. When you speak about big companies everywhere in the west and the east and in China and Russia. It's always about controlling the data. So I think this is a discussion who controls everything? Technology giants or, for example, legal frameworks, speaking about some national assemblies and so on. I always make conclusion that people who know technology are in... they have advantage comparing to people who just know legal aspects because they develop technologies. And speaking about big companies I think international organisations are not in position to control them actually, frankly speaking. So it's up to local governments and I would say to countries to control (no audio)
>> VASILY ZUDIN: ‑‑ is to say nothing. You were a Mac member and also had a lot of experience when it came to multistakeholder engagements. What does in your opinion the adoption of the global digital compact mean for the international community?
>> Thank you very much Vasily and I want to say hello to my distinguished panelists as well. Well, I would like to move a little bit the answer. Maybe from what our colleagues said before and I totally support regarding all the good things and opportunities perhaps that is the global digital compact and some other processes we had as well in STEM recently. If we read a lot of them then we will identify several aspects that are very common and I think everyone will be subscribing them that's why I think that's the nice part of this process. But the other part, talking about global south is related with the current situation that we have. And I think that's also something that we need to reflect on. We know that near three or around three billion of population is not currently connected. But we need to remember that most of this population is in the global south. That's the main problem. And it's due to different areas. Olga was mentioning language, for instance but we also have it in gender, in many cultures, in many regions women are not usually used to work with computers and worse, to have access to internet. We also have cultural arrears. We have regional arrears regarding the people that can access to services in the rural areas and the ones that live in urban areas and of course can enjoy all the good things the internet have so for this people, this regions, for this near three billion of the population in the world, actually the problems like fragmentations like cybercrime, like all the other problems, or even the new emerging issues like artificial intelligence are not in discussion. They are thinking in just how we can connect to internet and that's why that matter's still an issue and it will be an issue in the future if as a community, as a global community, don't think about the ways of reaching all these places, all these regions in the world. We know that despite the different efforts that the internet service providers, the telecommunications providers have done during this last years’ still it's very difficult for them to actually reach this kind of communities because of the difficult of return of investment. That's of course the reason, the major reason. So (audio cutting out). It's another important factor... approach which is a recent topic that is emerging in different forums. I ‑‑ of course I don't support this approach about having in general or requiring in general to the digital content of elopers to actually pay any kind of fee or whatever. But at the same time, it's important to realize that some of these big players. Not all of the digital players, but some of this big players are actually able to ‑‑ actually they are doing many things. They are actually contributing with investment, contributing with the deployment of infrastructure but not I will say, not in a most controlled way I mean. Yes, it's their money of course, but I think there's a room for coordinating with the government's decision. Just in this kind of processes, just in this kind of investment that are requiring different countries especially in the global south, so that's something that we also need to think about and discuss. So this take us to another, and I'm just talking about as I said before, not the fantastic stuff of the GDC but the challenges and one of those in the global south is how effective our regional and sub‑regional multi‑‑ not multistakeholders I will say multilateral sanctions will be in order first to agree on common grounds.
To agree in common regulations. To actually tackle all these challenges that we are facing in the near future. Like the ones that I mentioned before, regarding connectivity. I don't know, but it's, I always mention this as an example. The tradition that the Europeans have, regarding this collaboration, very effective collaboration with common regulations is something that in global south especially in Latin America that's where I come from, we need to take a good example, actually, we are very caring in the region, in lack, but at the same time the problem is that each of the governments has their own agenda with this matter. So I think it's important to agree in certain elements, one of those is connectivity, maybe the others will be of course emerging, so being effective in this original area to provide this kind of inputs and loans for the governments to actually act and do because in the end the governments can be signing an agreement like the GDC.
But they have to move from the agreement, from the shared principle to the action. And those actions come in policies and we are so delayed in issuing these kinds of policies so we can actually get this universal connection that we all want. So I will say there.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Thank you. Is there a risk of minimizing the role of the technical community in the digital paradigm? What's to think about this fact? Is there a risk of minimizing (no audio) paradigm?
>> I don't think so because of the nature of the ecosystem. There are key communities with a very specific role. I would like to mention some of them like internet force or I believe that we'll still be leading the technical area about the standards, about the technologies, of our proposals, and there are newcomers as well and more than newcomers, new actors regarding the technical arena. We have heard a lot of innovations, a lot of proposal, technical proposals from different, I am not going to mention any, but you may think which of them I am talking about. And I think we can imagine that there might be very nice examples of new policies, new protocols, et cetera, but the processes, themselves, must be very transparent if there are just key players working in these protocols and they come up with fantastic ideas but if those didn't come back from a bottom top process, I think it could become an issue in the future. So because internet as it is now, was actually result of that kind of participative inclusive and very transparent process over these years.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Thank you Roberto for your speech and for participating in our session. Our next speaker has vast experience in fact checking and I must say that fact checking is essential in the informational world.
We found ourself in. And it is a matter of national security and a matter of safety often a question of human lives. And I would like to extend the floor yours.
>> Thank you for giving me the floor as an active member of Russian fact checking community I would like to share with you my opinion, my idea, that can change our beliefs. But first of all I want to say that it stayed on the official website of global digital compact that its implementation requires a global effort. And one of the key commitments of GDI is building space, digital space that is free, that is independent, that is open, fact based and it's about the ‑‑ disinformation but it is portrayed in media as a main topic of concern to internet users. It's now seen as a weapon in global informational war. But in my opinion, this escalation to the problem of military level looks unwise and maybe is dangerous because lies has always exist and misinformation has always influenced people's decisions, people's behavior, nothing new. The fight against disinformation today is becoming convenient excuse for censorship, for reducing freedom of speech. And under the pretext of misinformation digital platforms meet promotion of materials which contains different points of use. This protects media (audio cutting out). Up to 62% of population believes fakes. And in those countries are active members of such famous internet ‑‑ international networks like IFCN, International Fact‑Checking Network so fact check doesn't work.
It's (no audio) (audio cutting out). AI. (No audio) we need to change the world approach from ‑‑ we need to learn the principle of limitation and punishment and start moving toward cooperation. And resilience. The more restrictions are imposed to this limitation of information in the world, the less protected users will be against disinformation. We need to communicate more. We need to interact more. We need to create informal communities and this is key. As I said earlier, it's time for us to move from confrontation to collaboration. And I want to remind you one thing, in 1916s, western countries and the Soviet Union moved from the open confrontation to the reducing level of aggression. The time resume, they resumed economic, scientific and cultural cooperation and this period is now called the election of relaxation of state and international relations. I'm sure that now is the best time for us to start to look at each other and to set the new rules of the game. It's time for digital. And I think those who are really interested in creating open and secure digital space can agree to work together. Regardless of differences in our views or benefits. All we need now is to relax a little bit. Thank you.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: Thank you very much for this useful information and one more question, how to identify that this information is fake? Because sometimes it's really difficult to see difference between fake and truth (no audio).
>> I think there is no way to define every fake even me as an expert I cannot see all the fakes. I've catched a lot of times, I see fake and then after a few days I remember this and think oh, that was fake. But one thing is important and it's knowledge. If you know something it's really hard to change your opinion about the thing. So the best way to make your armor against disinformation is to know more. I think that.
>> VASILY ZUDIN: As you can see we heard the opinions and elaborations of one generation and now I believe it's time to hear the voices of youth representatives and I would like to thank our first row of presenters for their meaningful inputs and invite our second core team to join discussions, thank you, thank you very much. Aleem is coordinator now of the second part of the discussion.
>> Hello, guys, hopefully you can hear me, the translation must also work. We have with us several esteemed speakers just a moment. So we have with us several representatives of youth who are also experts in IT sector. This is bog began, Alexandre representing. And also we have with us an active member from Ethiopia who is here somewhere she had to take a call and will come back to us in several minutes I hope. So our first speaker today our first expert is bog Dana and works for a Rosatom. And works with schools, universities and digital facilities. Bogdan, these is floor is yours, what do you think about global? Yes. Here's the clicker, please, go ahead.
>> BOGDAN: It's a great honor to be here with you at the IGF forum and today I would like to introduce you to our company. So as you can see on the slide the company has 460 different companies, so we have more than four different businesses and right now. Rosatom consists not only of companies, research universities which are allocated in the Russian Federation.
We also work within our international partners and right now we are developing more than 60 different international projects and right portfolio of foreign orders of Rosatom has reached more than 200 billion dollars last year.
But today I'm here to protect you not only our company also I am heading ‑‑ great, also I'm head of the community of young scientists at Rosatom and our two main goals is to provide connection between the government universities and our real factors and research university to create project which are based on the field of governance university science and our tasks of real industry. And second one, is to provide community in which scientists can connect with each other and create different scientific projects which are based on the intersection of their scientific interests and scientific directions as I think see on the slide here consist of more than 90 young scientists who are leading the key projects like nuclear energy, also we are working on the creation of new materials by application of the approach of digital material science, replication of course common material science, there are work on the health care sphere in the nuclear medicine production by creation of isotopes for curing the cancer and other diseases, of course there's personalized medicine by technologists and there are other technologists as you can see electronic. We have experts in plasma, laser technologists, recently we had a quantum computer and they are working in artificial intelligence with digital means and et cetera. I would like to go back to the main goal of Rosatom and of course it's generation of energy.
Of course all of us know that we can provide digital infrastructure, transfer to this new technology without energy so Rosatom has a great experience in that field and our nuclear power plants.
At the time we upgraded our skills and the building of the nuclear power plants. So our experience which we have got for the years we are implementing into international projects.
And right now we are working with countries like China, Egypt, Hungary, and other countries. But we use nuclear energy not only for production of nuclear power plants and provides an opportunity to our partners to get green energy sources. Also we are building ships. Especially nuclear icebreakers working on the same principles and they require ‑‑ the type of reactors require less energy so we use it for transfer cargoes, we are not on CR route and amounts of cargo we transfer you can see on the slide. So 2030 we hope to reach millions of tons. We are using to produce and make next step in creation of nuclear power plants especially small. And as you can see on the slide, we will build in the condition of severe cold temperature nuclear power plant, small one and it will be located in the Republic of Sakha and we will build a small nuclear power plant.
This facilities will be built in the areas to which access is very hard. And especially in this locations. Located. Huge mineral deposits. But the main feature also about this region is that we should provide connection of electricity to provide digital connection of the people in these areas but, as I said on the second slide, we consist of big amounts of company, more than 400. And I am as a scientist of giving measurements to a company would like to tell you about projects which are ‑‑ on which we are working and there is, you can see different materials for spheres like electronic, we produce super conductors, we produce different monocrystals and our production also consists of rare metals and the different alloys and we produce it in very different forms like alloys, powders, we can create details with simple form for example of creation of different electrical components.
And there's complex geometry which but we can make by implication of technologies but unfortunately right now I have not many times at the session, so I would like you to invite to the session which should be held on the last day of IGF and we will talk about real scientific projects which has impact on the design of north region so thank you for your attention. A community of young scientists and Rosatom in general I look forward to big change, thank you.
>> I think this was very interesting because we were trying to bring something new to IGF. We discussed digital technologies, internet but I think that energy, when it comes to energy, generation of electricity, when it comes to the Rosatom, and not just in Russia, but across the world are paramount especially when we talk about digital divides our next speaker is Alex, mediation practice. A famous lawyer firm which has been suing Google for many years and defending the interest of ordinary users.
Aleksandra, what do you think? We talked a lot today about the so‑called tech giants what real threats do players like Google matter and others pose to the global south? Is it hard to fight the Goliath
>> ALEKSANDRA KOZINA: Yes it's really hard to fight the Goliath and I would like to start my presentation and that would be I hope very interesting. And ‑‑
>> Let's wait for several minutes. I see the tech guys are on it. This is it, yes.
>> ALEKSANDRA: Before I start and before any technical problems would be solved I would like to thank you for participating in this session. I would like to thank IGF for this amazing opportunity to share ideas with my co‑panelists and with the central for global collaboration. I hope you will enjoy my presentation. And we'll have some questions. Okay. So speaking about the big tech, my allegation today is that big tech needs to change because recently the big tech violated some laws in different countries. And we need to take very crucial attention on this point. I will concentrate your attention on four parts of my speech.
Firstly, I will tell you about how the big tech companies operate globally. How they structure their business in different jurisdictions. Secondly I will tell you what the global tech company should pay attention to in business. This is very interesting and very important not only are written laws the big tech need to take into account but as well social rules and cultural traits. Thirdly, we will talk about the recent cases in antistress law and in civil law. I will give you a brief overview of this and hopefully you will find it interesting and how we can deal with this problem in the future. This is brief information about me. I work in dispute resolution and arbitration telecommunication and media technology problems this is how I look when I'm hungry very serious, in general I'm very cheerful so come talk to me after the session. Long story short. Then the big tech structured business globally. It has around three models, it can face, so the first model is when the head company decides to hope a separate entity on the territory of other jurisdictions. For example, Google on the territory of Russia had previously the separate entity. And the point is the separate entity has separate assets and is in general independent of the decision of the head company. But that's ‑‑ that presumption of the corporate saying that if there are subsidiary acted on the behalf of the parent company or with the active knowledge of the parent company, you can sue the parent company for any misconduct subsidiary company do on the territory of other jurisdiction and vice versa. And that is actually the best model for the consumers of the big tech. We will revert shortly to that question. So yeah, model B if the big tech company do not want to open separate assets it can open a representative. The thing is the representative is not separate entity in the terms of law. It has no assets. It ‑‑ and if you face a misconduct from the head company you cannot sue the representative. And the best example on the territory of Russia is Apple and Facebook a couple of years ago they had separate representatives on the territory of Russia and their representative exists only for the public function so to communicate with tax officers and to trust managers and so on and you cannot of course sue the representative but we have some advantages in that point. If we want to have a dispute on the territory of Russia we can sue the head company, but we can sue a representative as well as a core defendant and we can notify the head company through the representative because it's easier than to file a claim abroad and the last model for the consumers, for the big companies that deal with big tech.
Because big tech can decide not to open any separate structure or representative at all. And the best examples is Amazon or Meta in Russia. They have never had any separate entities or representatives but they actually sold and sell some services in the digital products on the territory of Russia and the disadvantages of that approach is that consumer or business have high host of proceedings involved because you have to go directly to the head. There's a big bargaining power because they cannot talk to them via e‑mail or so on. And actually in that business structure, they consume ‑‑ the customers actually have a lack of remedies. Moving onto the second part of my speech about what the, yes, one second. Next slide, please. Yeah, as I said earlier, the big tech can choose free business structures to conduct business abroad but what should they take into account than doing business globally? First of all, they need to understand informal institution of each of the country and by informal institutions I mean socially shared rules, traditions, cultural traits, it's not a secret that, for example, Arab region countries or Russia or U.S. or European Union differ a lot. And global digital company need to take into account this differences. And secondly but not from the point of characterization, the global company need to take into account formal institution and by formal institution I mean written and unwritten laws. And the next slide, we will show you the nonexhaustive list, sorry. Sorry. Yeah. And the next slide we will show you the nonexhaustive list of laws which relate to digital business for example in Russia and I think as well in any other country. And these laws, the big tech should take into account very crucially. And the recent cases concerning the big tech show that the big tech ignores these laws. And let's talk about that more. Let's talk about that more. So, I would like to present you there are recent Russian judgments against Google and that information is very interesting because on the territory of Russian Federation, last four years around 20 separate judgments were published and the judgments state that Google violated its own policies. Then it blocked Russian media channels. And the thing with that judgment towards that several claimants submitted claims on recognition and enforcement of said judgments on the territory of different countries. And I only choose some of them like Turkey or Hungary, South Africa, but actually the number of countries were up to 20 I guess. And the interesting thing is that on the territory of South Africa, South African High Court seized all Google assets, all Google subsidiary assets on the territory of South Africa because the judgment existed and I want to talk about more of ‑‑ some of finds, actually according to this judgment for noncompliance with the judgment, Google was forced to pay a sum of money called a judiciary fine and the amount of fines as per information of last month which were written on BBC the guardian and Forbes. This was a surprising number because it contains 36 zeros after the actual amount. Okay. And the global internet created a variety of jokes about that sum. And I want to share with you my favorite joke because actually is very fun. And of course they ‑‑ this declaration that presented the joke is I guess cannot in the future, but what is not funny? I want to tell you about recent, yeah, very funny joke. Next slide, please. I want to tell you about a recent antitrust cases and the amount of fines protected on the slide is no joke at all because last decade showed that Alphabet companies or Google companies in particular violated several laws on the territory of European Union and that resulted (no audio) billion dollars. So I added QR so if you are interested in information of that case, you can just count it and read it in short articles but Google is not the only company which is under investigation of antitrust officers. Actually, every big tech company and by big tech I mean American big tech is under investigations in several countries so Apple in European Union, Qualcomm, Facebook and Meta platforms and the list is not exhaustive.
And by representing these cases, I am not trying to say that the big tech is evil. And we should all ban them. But I wanted to set a discussion on how the big tech performing global because it is very important with big tech with so much valuable resources with all this knowledge and technology to understand cultural traits and differences to understand laws differences because laws differ from country to country. And the last example of how the big tech law is how the alphabet violates its own financial laws. As you can see on the slide, I presented you the screenshots of last quarterly financial statement of alphabet so it's 2024. And each of the financial statements has part called legal matters and that part, the big tech or any other company which has shared globally transmitted needs to disclose the significant legal information about the cases. And as you can see on the slide, alphabet disclosed information but it did not disclose any information about Russian court judgments. And this is what we need to talk about more because why alphabet disclose antitrust cases with the clients in amount 8 billion dollars and did not say anything in particular.
About Russian judgments. The amount of fines of which is 20 decillion dollars so it's ‑‑ in 36 ‑‑ with 36 zeros. It's amazing. And moreover, about this case.
Alphabet did not communicate with the state officials, with journalist, with investors, with claimants on the resolving of this issue. And I think that this ignorance on the opinion of Russian media companies, of Russian government, of the government of any other country who has not so much bargaining power to set rules on the internet. Is what we need to concentrate about on this forum and in the future because we need to somehow shift the market position of the big tech not to ban them. But to make some rules for them. Because if we do not make some rules for them, they will do anything and everything and we do not ‑‑ we will not have any opportunity to somehow stop them in the future. So thank you for your attention. I hope you enjoy my presentation and hope you will have some questions afterwards.
>> Thank you so much Aleksandra. It was interesting to hear about the experience of fighting with Google Alphabet, big tech giant to keep them at bay and keep them in check. It's necessary when we talk about digital divides and the security of the global south. The ‑‑ avoidance.
In order to avoid new forms of digital, new colonialism. We have to ensure new world order. You are an active member of youth community. And since rather recently a member of the IGF advisory group. I suppose it's a great honor. You were already a member when the global digital compact was accepted. Should we in your opinion digital governance remain a domain of multistakeholder engagement or is it in the interest of the world to increase government participation perhaps and the anticipation of practices where is the place of youth in all of this as well?
>> Thank you very much. I hope you can hear me. And thank you so much for the kind introduction and it's an honor to be part of this discussion.
So my intervention will be very short. Indeed, the digital governance is at a critical juncture. The monthly stakeholder approach has been at the heart as well as the back point of the ecosystem bringing together diverse perspectives of different stakeholder groups, civil society, the government and as well as the technical community. And so, this has been very effective as it reflects the very true nature of the internet which is decentralized which is collaborative and global. However as digital technologies are increasing, shaping every aspect of our lives government are becoming more involved and if we talk about, for example, issues such as security, platform accountability, and digital inequalities or the digital divide, the attention of government is indeed needed. And so regulation in many cases is very important to ensure that public safety, fairness and equity is there. Yet too much government control or risk that exclude key voices as well as innovation and so this is where the global digital compact or the GDC is really play a transformative role. First, this offers a chance to redefine the rule of the game for digital government, for digital governance by balancing these dynamics and actually a truly effective GDC it must up hold the principle of multistakeholderism where every decision is informed by ‑‑ involvement of all actors, not just government. But it should also provide a framework where governments can take responsibility in areas that require regulation such as harms or ensuring data rights. Now, so we're going to talk about youth. Where does the voice of the young people feed into all of this? And I think for this, user not just stakeholders in digital governance but rather we are the agents of change. In young people are the largest groups of internet users. But we are also innovators, we are creators.
And leaders of shaping the digital future but in most of the discussions, young people are underrepresented. When it comes to let's say policymaking. And so, for instance, many discussions about the platform accountability.
Or global standards, youth voices are missing even so these issues are important for us. So this ‑‑ the GDC can really play a very important role in this by integrating the voice of young people and that might mean, you know, creating youth leadership, creating mentoring mentorship programs or mentoring emerging voices, ensuring that youth driven solutions are there and beyond that, young people need to be meaningfully engaged in decision‑making processes. Not just as participants but also as contributors to many and key discussions as well so in my view, I think we need both. Which is multistakeholder approach that values collaboration and inclusivity as well as government participation in order to address this global challenges. So striking this balance is very important. And the GDC paves a way for a more inclusive as well as equitable and sustainable future where every voice matters. Especially of those young people. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much for this interesting point of view and especially your opinion on the GDC and the points which you mention about the view. I wholeheartedly agree. Representing the center for cooperation we also do a lot of work in terms of youth empowerment and it is absolutely important not only to speak about the youth, not only to give youth a certain platform and make their voices heard, it's important to engage youth to make them integral part of the process so in my view, we should fight all forms of discrimination including ageism and when it comes to youth the perfect position of youth empowerment is when there is no division between youth and non‑youth when youth has become integral part of all policymaking processes.
And speaking of youth especially our center has a myriad of initiatives related to support. And this is the Internet Governance Forum and that is why I would like to present our next speaker who is the director of the center of the global cooperation who collaborate on the activities not only with the IGF format but also in Russia and globally. The floor is yours.
>> Can you hear me? Wonderful. Thank you very much Aleem and hi, everyone, I hope my intervention is last but not least. First I would like to reflect on the GDC. As probably everyone here we were full of hopes and enthusiastic. But the hopes are still hopes. The center for global IT cooperation as Aleem mentioned as played its role. We collected a number of views and visions from the Russian expert community organisations like 40 of them and sent holistic common position to the office of the tech envoy. And since that time we have been waiting. Well, that is why we are especially sensitive about the outcome. The very idea of the global digital compact has a set of rules that outline the future of the internet governance system and set the vector of AI algorithms which are based on the security quality and nondiscrimination. That is in line with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals it's quite good and of course it deserves attention and definitely this new global digital compact will open an era, a new era for both internet governance and for digital governance well still as it often happens the initial expectations from the GDC have been shattered by the real interest of the global platforms, large businesses, the private sector is not at all interested in being you should the tight control of governments or human rights NGOs or international oversight institutions and today, we've heard an exciting story from Aleksandra about the fight against Google that proves this assumption.
This is the reason why the implementation of the GDC will meet objective difficulties and the second reason lies in the different technological potential of the countries. It is difficult in the world of capitalist economy to call for equality between rich and poor. Developed and technologically immature. Therefore, under the guise of the GDC provisions I think we will see that the IT giants will be pushing the interests in countries and regions where they don't have actually their own digital alternatives. And opportunities to compete on equal grounds with those giants. In this regards they are a real force that can counter digital neo colonialism. Neither the GDC nor the pact for the future.
Nor any soft law acts but I would say that the joint initiatives of the international expert community. As well as time cast and proven digital solutions such as those we have heard about today. As we can see, the Russian IT industry has appeared to be strong and stress resilient enough to survive unprecedented western sanctions. At the end of the day isn't it cool not to depend on the global digital platforms? Russian IT solutions are nonpoliticized and could be customized for any plant individually.
And this is becoming an important player in the IT expert sphere. Apart from our ‑‑ in Russia and abroad to find each other and to establish partnerships. So that trustworthy and reliable digital solutions are applied in the countries of the global south to strengthen their digital sovereignty and, believe me after years of harsh sanctions, we have learnt something about digital sovereignty. For this purpose, we, not just study global regional and national IT markets, to identify the demand and seek for potential partners but also we launched a dedicated tool, a marketplace of digital solutions.
And it is not only about software. It's about IT education and IT consulting. This portal also contains a detailed guide on how to launch an IT business in Russia for foreign citizens, you can learn more actually at our booth just behind this workshop room. To conclude, I would like to share one idea that is literally in the air. I have heard it a number of times recently and even in the course of discussions at the IGF both formal and informal. All of us are aware of the IGF principles.
And no one can stop digital transformation of (no audio) principles making it a separate domain at the end of the day ESG sounds not bad with this I would like you to stay tuned and let's create a fair digital future together. Thank you.
>> ALEEM: Maybe we have some questions from the audience in case there's some questions I would like to ask you to raise your hand to our esteemed speakers, general questions, no questions? Never have I seen in the chat so in that case and I think our time is running up, dear experts, listeners, and contributors to the discussion, I wholeheartedly thank you for this full round of conversations and presentations we had. I hope that our debates will continue after this session. The ideas that were discussed here today will grow to become something bigger. The future of the internet is inextricably linked to the future of humanity. Today the global south suffers the must from injustices and inequality of access. We can only create a fair digital order when we include all stakeholders in internet governance and ensure a world order based upon the U.N. charter and a respect for human rights. Thank you for your thoughts. Inputs and your fairness. See you soon. Thank you.