The 3-Line Summary
- On 5 July 2018, FGI France returned after a two-year hiatus, drawing around 1,000 people to Université Paris Descartes under the opening-plenary banner "Regulation to take back control?"
- The heads of CNIL, ARCEP and the National Digital Council debated regulation with lawmakers, while 12 workshops in four tracks covered algorithms, infrastructure, disinformation and IoT ethics — preceded by a fake-news hackathon, the "Fakathon".
- Weeks after GDPR took effect and months before Paris hosted the global IGF, the forum captured France's regulatory-comeback moment — a debate that resonates wherever platform regulation is on the table.
Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on FGI France 2018 (French Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.
Conference at a Glance (from official records)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | FGI France 2018 (French Internet Governance Forum) |
| Dates | 5 July 2018 |
| Venue | Centre Universitaire des Saints-Pères, Université Paris Descartes, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, Paris (6th arr.) |
| Theme | Regional governance themes |
| Format | Opening plenary plus 12 workshops in four tracks (9:00–20:00), preceded by a "Fakathon" (29 June–1 July) and a series of preparatory workshops |
| Host | Multistakeholder organising committee led by ISOC France, co-chaired by Nicolas Chagny and Lucien Castex, with Afnic, ARCEP, Cap Digital and academic partners |
(See the source list at the end of this article.)
Discussion Digest — from the Session Records
Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.
1. Opening Plenary "Regulation to Take Back Control?" — Regulation in the Year of GDPR
Sessions: Opening plenary "La Régulation pour reprendre la main ?", moderated by Lucien Castex
- On stage were the very actors of French regulation: CNIL President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, ARCEP President Sébastien Soriano, MP Paula Forteza and CNNum President Salwa Toko, with an opening address by digital minister Mounir Mahjoubi on the programme [1][2][3]
- The timing — a month and a half after GDPR took effect on 25 May 2018 — was no accident; a preparatory workshop on 25 April had examined European data protection one month before application [1][2][3]
- "Can users and public authorities take back control from the platforms?" was the through-line of French digital policy that year [1][2][3]
2. Twelve Workshops in Four Tracks — From Algorithms to IoT Ethics and Environmental Cost
Sessions: Ateliers de l'Avenir Numérique (all day, three workshops in each of four tracks)
- Track 1, "Reprendre la main" (Taking back control): algorithms, personal control of one's internet, and data management [2][3]
- Track 2, "Cyber politique et Politique Cyber": cyber strategy, infrastructure and access (IPv6, fibre, transoceanic links) and the platformisation of the internet; Track 3, "Humanités numériques": digital heritage, education and disinformation [2][3]
- Track 4, "Responsabilités éthiques et sociétales": solidarity, an open internet, the environmental cost of digital and IoT ethics — each workshop was designed to produce recommendations for internet governance [2][3]
3. The Fakathon — A Hackathon Against Fake News
Sessions: Fakathon (29 June–1 July, co-organised with PSL University and Futurs.io, continuing through 5 July)
- Ahead of the forum, the "Fakathon" hackathon prototyped tools against disinformation, with results carried into the 5 July event [1][2]
- France's law against information manipulation was then before parliament (adopted that November), putting election-time disinformation at the top of the political agenda [1][2]
- Together with the disinformation workshop in Track 3, it connected the technical community's building power to the policy debate [1][2]
4. Ramp-Up to the Global IGF in Paris — France's Position in 2018
Sessions: Keynotes and closing (Odile Ambry, Moez Chakchouk, Bertrand de La Chapelle, Olivier Schrameck and others)
- Four months later, in November 2018, the global IGF met at UNESCO in Paris; FGI France 2018 served as the domestic ramp-up, and the 2019 edition was explicitly framed as the bridge from the Paris IGF to Berlin [3][5][4]
- Keynote names — UNESCO's Moez Chakchouk, Internet & Jurisdiction's Bertrand de La Chapelle, and CSA president Olivier Schrameck — signalled the convergence of broadcast and internet regulation [3][5][4]
- Reborn after the 2016–2017 hiatus, this edition launched the year-round "Ateliers de l'Avenir Numérique" format, putting FGI France on an annual footing [3][5][4]
Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered
Q. What was the theme?
A. In a word: regulation. Weeks after GDPR took effect, the opening plenary asked "Regulation to take back control?" — with the heads of CNIL and ARCEP, France's data and telecom regulators, debating it in person.
Q. Anything unusual on the programme?
A. The "Fakathon" — a weekend hackathon building anti-disinformation tools, feeding straight into the forum while France's anti-fake-news law was before parliament.
Q. Why does it matter?
A. "Can regulation rein in the big platforms?" became the defining question of the following years — from the EU's DSA/DMA to platform-transparency laws elsewhere. This forum caught that turn as it happened, four months before Paris hosted the global IGF.
What Is France IGF? (for first-time readers)
France IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.
Why It Matters to You
What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2018 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.
Sources & References
- Le Forum sur la Gouvernance de l'Internet France aura lieu le 5 juillet 2018 à Paris — Internet Society France (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Le Forum sur la Gouvernance de l'Internet France dévoile le programme des Ateliers de l'Avenir Numérique 2018 — Internet Society France (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Le Forum sur la Gouvernance de l'Internet France — FrenchWeb.fr (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Forum sur la Gouvernance de l'Internet France（公式サイト・沿革） — igf-france.fr (accessed 2026-07-11)
- FGI France 2019, le 4 juillet 2019 à Paris（2018年世界IGFパリ開催との接続に言及） — Internet Society France (accessed 2026-07-11)
Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.
Related links
- IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
- Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
- Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/
Revision History
Rev. 1 — published 11 June 2018, 10:00 (Article published)
Rev. 2 — updated 16 July 2026, 20:09 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))
— 中澤祐樹
