7th Korea Internet Governance Forum (KrIGF 2018) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. The 7th KrIGF met on 5 July 2018 at the Seoul Startup Hub in Mapo under the theme 'Trustworthy Internet, Transparent Governance' — nine workshops and four lectures, with about 200 participants.
2. Four tracks spanned network usage fees and net neutrality, hate speech and free expression, fintech and data governance, plus tutorials on AI and blockchain.
3. Its civil-society-led workshop on interconnection fees prefigured the 'network usage fee' controversy that later went global, making this edition a reference point for platform-policy debates far beyond Korea.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on 7th Korea Internet Governance Forum (KrIGF 2018) 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)

(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. Network Usage Fees and Net Neutrality — The Prototype of a Global Fight

Sessions: Open Net's workshop 'Net neutrality and internet interconnection' and Workshop 7 'Network usage fee discrimination' (15:15–16:45)

• Open Net, a co-host and programme-committee member, ran the workshop on net neutrality and internet interconnection [4][2]
• Who pays for the network — Korea's 'network usage fee' question — later escalated into a global content-provider-versus-telco battle; this forum put its prototype on the public stage [4][2]

2. Hate Speech vs Free Expression — A Head-On Debate in the Human-Rights Track

Sessions: Workshop 8 'Freedom of expression and hate speech' (15:15–16:45) and Workshop 2 on internet censorship

• The human-rights track staged the tension between curbing hate speech and protecting free expression, with Open Net joining the debate [4][2]
• Workshops on internet censorship and identity-verification rules rounded out the rights-side reading of the 'trustworthy internet' theme [4][2]

3. Fintech and Data Governance — Building Trust in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Sessions: Workshop 1 'Fintech and regtech' (11:00–12:30) and afternoon workshops on data governance and news services (13:30–15:00)

"To establish next-generation internet governance for the fourth industrial revolution era, KISA will keep cultivating global governance talent through this forum and the Asia Pacific Internet Governance Academy (APIGA) (KISA press release, translated from Korean)"
— Ju Yong-wan (Director, Internet Infrastructure Division, KISA) [3][2]

• Sessions weighed fintech and regtech — innovating financial services without losing stability — data governance balancing privacy and use, and the responsibilities of news platforms [3][2]
• With portal giants' news curation under fire at the time, the 'transparent governance' theme doubled as a debate on platform accountability [3][2]

4. AI, Blockchain and Startups — Four Thematic Lectures

Sessions: Tutorial 1 'AI and open data' (11:00–12:30); Tutorials 2–3 on blockchain applications (13:30–15:00); Tutorial 4 on startup trends (15:15–16:45)

• Alongside nine workshops, four lectures introduced AI, virtual currency, blockchain and startup trends from the ground up [3][2][1]
• Hosted at the Seoul Startup Hub, free to attend and live-streamed on Facebook, the forum deliberately pulled the startup crowd into governance debates [3][2][1]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What did this meeting decide?

A. Nothing binding — but it put issues that later exploded into legislative fights, from network usage fees to hate-speech rules, on one table for government, business and civil society.

Q. What was the most contentious topic?

A. Who pays for the network. Korea's telco-versus-content-provider fee dispute, debated here, later became a worldwide 'network usage fee' controversy.

Q. Why should I care?

A. The fee fight reached other countries too, and the hate-speech-versus-free-expression line affects everyone on social media.

What Is Korea IGF? (for first-time readers)

Korea 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

1. 2018 KrIGF 개요（第7回フォーラム概要） — KrIGF公式サイト（Kr-IGF 한국 인터넷거버넌스포럼） (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. 2018 프로그램（第7回フォーラム プログラム） — KrIGF公式サイト（Kr-IGF 한국 인터넷거버넌스포럼） (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. KISA, 2018 한국인터넷거버넌스포럼(KrIGF) 개최（報道資料） — KISA 한국인터넷진흥원 (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. Korea Internet Governance Forum (KrIGF) 2018（共催・参加報告） — Open Net Korea（오픈넷） (accessed 2026-07-11)
5. 한국 인터넷거버넌스포럼 (KrIGF) 소개・개최 이력（開催履歴表） — KRNIC 한국인터넷정보센터（KISA運営） (accessed 2026-07-11)
6. 2025년 제14회 한국 인터넷거버넌스포럼 세미나 정보（歴代テーマ一覧を含む） — 韓国国会図書館（국회도서관） (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 7 July 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