The 3-Line Summary
- On 21 August 2020 the 9th Korea Internet Governance Forum went fully online for the first time (Zoom and YouTube), under the theme 'Internet Governance in the Pandemic Era: New Normal, Connection, Safety.'
- Nine workshops and two lectures tackled the year's defining questions: balancing epidemic control with privacy, the digital divide of a contact-free society, and demands on Korea's newly empowered Personal Information Protection Commission.
- Every country wrestled with pandemic-era privacy trade-offs; KrIGF 2020 shows how a national IGF kept the multistakeholder conversation running through the crisis.
Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on The 9th Korea Internet Governance Forum (KrIGF 2020) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.
📍 The first fully online KrIGF, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic
Conference at a Glance (from official records)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | The 9th Korea Internet Governance Forum (KrIGF 2020) |
| Edition | 9th |
| Dates | 21 August 2020 |
| Venue | Held online (Zoom webinar with YouTube streaming, 10:00–18:00) |
| Theme | Internet Governance in the Pandemic Era: New Normal, Connection, Safety |
| Workshops | 9 |
| Host | Co-hosted by 14 organisations including the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA, President Kim Seok-hwan) and the Korea Internet Governance Alliance (KIGA, Chair Lee Dong-man) |
(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. Epidemic Control and Personal Data — Balancing Public Health with Privacy
Sessions: Workshop sessions on COVID-19 issues
- How to balance the use of personal data for epidemic control against privacy protection was a headline workshop theme [1][2]
- Having deployed data-intensive contact tracing, Korea's community stressed that crisis-time data use needs societal scrutiny and dialogue [1][2]
2. Wishes for the New Privacy Regulator — Oversight in the 'Data 3 Laws' Era
Sessions: Workshop 7 'What We Want from the Integrated PIPC' (proposed by Jinbonet, moderated by lawyer Yoon Bok-nam)
- After the January 2020 'Data 3 Laws' elevated the Personal Information Protection Commission to a central agency, lawyers, industry groups, consumer bodies, civil society and the Commission itself debated its top priorities [3]
- Key questions: balancing data protection with data use, securing independence from government data policy, and joining international privacy norm-setting [3]
- Civil-society advocates such as Chang Yeo-kyung (IDR) shared the panel with PIPC officials [3]
3. The Contact-Free Society and the Digital Divide — Shadows of the New Normal
Sessions: Workshop sessions on contact-free culture and the digital divide
- The digital divide widened by the sudden shift to contact-free life was a core workshop theme [1][2]
- As education, public services and commerce moved online, panels warned that older people and other digitally vulnerable groups risked being left behind [1][2]
4. AI Ethics and the Future of the DNS — Lectures and an Open Domain-Policy Debate
Sessions: Two lecture sessions and an open meeting of KIGA's internet address resources subcommittee
- Two lectures — on AI ethics guidelines and on the present and future of the DNS — paired policy debate with capacity building [1][4]
- An open debate on improving national (.kr) domain policy ran alongside, keeping address-resource stewardship in public view [1][4]
Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered
Q. How did they hold a forum in the pandemic year?
A. Fully online — a Zoom webinar with YouTube streaming. Registered participants joined interactively; everyone else could watch live, so the dialogue never stopped.
Q. What was the biggest debate?
A. Epidemic control versus privacy. Korea's data-heavy contact tracing made the question of limits and oversight on crisis-time data use especially urgent.
Q. Why should I care?
A. Every country faced the same trade-offs with contact-tracing apps. And Korea's debate over its newly empowered privacy regulator maps directly onto discussions about data-protection authorities elsewhere.
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 2020 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.
Sources & References
- 팬데믹 시대의 '인터넷거버넌스'를 논하다（パンデミック時代のインターネットガバナンスを論じる） — KrIGF事務局（韓国インターネットガバナンスフォーラム公式サイト） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- 2020 한국인터넷거버넌스포럼(KrIGF) '팬데믹 시대의 인터넷거버넌스 : 뉴노멀, 연결, 안전' 개최（開催告知） — 進歩ネットワークセンター 情報人権研究所（idr.jinbo.net） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- [워크샵 7] 통합 개인정보보호위원회에 바란다（統合個人情報保護委員会に望む） — KrIGF事務局（韓国インターネットガバナンスフォーラム公式サイト） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- KISA, 21일 2020 한국인터넷거버넌스포럼(KrIGF) 개최（KISA、21日にKrIGF 2020開催） — NK경제（NK経済） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- 한국 인터넷거버넌스포럼(KrIGF) 개최 이력（KrIGF開催履歴表） — KIGA／한국인터넷정보센터（KRNIC） (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 4 October 2020, 13:00 (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
