SEEDIG 2023 Zagreb — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. SEEDIG 8, the regional IGF for South Eastern Europe, met on 6–7 November 2023 at WESPA Business & Lounge in Zagreb, Croatia (with online streaming) — its first annual meeting after a dormant 2022, and its first in-person one since 2019.
2. Under the theme 'Digital Beyond Borders', two days of sessions covered declining Internet freedom drawn from Freedom on the Net country reports, GDPR and AI regulation, OSINT reshaped by the war in Ukraine, and content moderation.
3. It stands as a case study in restarting a regional forum through cross-border solidarity — and in how a region bordering a war talks about digital rights.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on SEEDIG 2023 in Zagreb draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

📍 [Major catalogue discrepancy] The catalogue lists Sofia, but SEEDIG's 8th annual meeting (2023) actually took place in Zagreb, Croatia — Sofia hosted the inaugural 2015 meeting. No annual meeting was held in 2022; SEEDIG 8 was the first annual meeting since the 2021 online series and the first in-person one since Bucharest 2019

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. Bridging the Gap Year — Back In Person After Four Years

Sessions: The meeting as a whole (6–7 November 2023, Zagreb)

• No annual meeting took place in 2022; SEEDIG 8 was the first since the 2021 online series and the first in-person meeting since Bucharest 2019 [1][2][3][5]
• Local co-host Politiscope, a Split-based digital-rights NGO, and a US$8,042 Internet Society Foundation grant made the restart possible — proof a regional forum can reboot on modest means and community backing [1][2][3][5]
• The UN IGF's NRI network formally announced it as the 8th annual edition of the IGF for South Eastern Europe [1][2][3][5]

2. Internet Freedom in Retreat — Freedom on the Net Reports from Four Countries

Sessions: Internet-freedom trends session with Freedom on the Net country-report authors

• Authors of the Armenia, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine Freedom on the Net country reports presented their findings and discussed broader regional trends in Internet freedom [1]
• As practising digital-rights advocates, the authors also explored how the reports can be leveraged for advocacy at national and regional levels [1]

3. From GDPR to AI Regulation — A View from the EU's Newest Member

Sessions: Panels on GDPR and AI regulation; workshop on corporate responses to government demands

• GDPR implementation and the then-imminent EU AI Act were debated from the vantage point of a region mixing EU members and candidate countries [1][4]
• Co-host Politiscope's data-protection expertise fed workshops on how companies should respond to government data demands, alongside digital-security training [1][4]

4. War and the Internet — Ukraine and the Rise of OSINT

Sessions: Sessions on the Ukraine war's OSINT implications, social-media content moderation, and cybersecurity resilience

• Sessions examined how Russia's invasion of Ukraine has transformed the methods and ethics of open-source intelligence, debated with the immediacy of a neighbouring region [1]
• Content moderation on social media, cybersecurity resilience and domain-name internationalisation rounded out an agenda true to the 'beyond borders' theme [1]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. Why had SEEDIG been silent for two years?

A. After going online in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic, no annual meeting happened at all in 2022. The 2023 Zagreb meeting was a restart, made possible by a local NGO co-host and international community support.

Q. What was the heaviest topic?

A. The retreat of Internet freedom. The very authors of the Armenia, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine Freedom on the Net reports discussed surveillance, censorship, and how the war in Ukraine has transformed open-source intelligence.

Q. Why should I care?

A. The region's struggle to align with the EU's GDPR and AI Act mirrors what every non-EU democracy faces, and SEEDIG's comeback shows how a grassroots governance forum can survive funding gaps and hiatuses.

What Is SEEDIG? (for first-time readers)

SEEDIG 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 2023 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.

Sources & References

1. SEEDIG 8 — SEEDIG（公式） (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. SEEDIG 8 Hosted in Croatia 6-7 November — intgovforum.org, NRI news (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. 8th Annual Meeting of the South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance – SEEDIG 8 — Internet Society Foundation（助成プロジェクトページ） (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. SEEDIG 8: Regionalna Sinergija za Napredak Zajednice — domene.hr（クロアチア .hr レジストリ／CARNET） (accessed 2026-07-11)
5. South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance — en (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 6 May 2023, 13:00 (Article published)

Rev. 2 — updated 11 July 2026, 02:14 (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