6th Croatian Internet Governance Forum held within MIPRO in Opatija

Two important topics were discussed at the Forum – the entry into force of the Digital Services Act and the Global Digital Agreement.

Zagreb, 31 May 2023 The 6th Croatian Internet Governance Forum (Croatian IGF) was held in Opatija within the scope of the 46th International Meeting MIPRO, co-organized by HAKOM, on Thursday, May 25th. This year’s Forum brought together participants who discussed two important topics; the entry into force of the Digital Services Act and the Global Digital Compact (GDC) to be agreed at the Summit.

The Internet Governance Forum is a global initiative operating under the umbrella of the UN to bring together all interested stakeholders to participate in discussions related to Internet governance. The initiative was launched in 2006 at the “World Summit on Information Society” (WSIS) in Tunisia, by the UN Secretary-General as an open platform for discussions related to internet governance. A primary motivation for this decision arose from the growing need to include a wider social community in discussions on Internet governance and regulation since it became obvious that Internet governance-related topics exceeded topics on IP address space, internet protocols, and domains. In addition, the need to include other stakeholders like representatives of civil society, the academic community, industry, and the private sector in discussions was identified. The Croatian National IGF was established in 2015.

This year’s MIPRO was held under the slogan “ICT for a Smart and Green Present and Future”, and during several days of assembly of the representatives of industry, academia, and institutions as well as other interested stakeholders, there were several round tables and workshops and a series of expert presentations. For the first time, the ICT “Tesla’s Golden Egg” was given to laureates Company Ericsson Nikola Tesla, and Damir Sabol, who was awarded for Photomat educational application.

Great interest came from the first Croatian round table of robots on the topic “At the threshold of a new civilizational transhumanist ecosystem”. Three Pepper robots Aurora, Electra, and Trinity spoke about the future of artificial and machine intelligence and robotics as well as the arrival of the fifth industrial revolution.