Taiwan Internet Governance Forum 2018 (TWIGF 2018) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. The fourth TWIGF met on 13–14 July 2018 at the Chunghwa Telecom Academy in Banqiao, New Taipei City, under the theme "Taiwan's Digital Transformation and Its Future: Crises and Challenges" — its first two-day edition, with 2 plenaries and 16 workshops chosen from 25 proposals.
2. Weeks after GDPR took effect, sessions tackled cross-border data flows and localisation, blockchain and cryptocurrency, 5G security, internet blocking, and women in ICT; Taiwan's first youth IGF camp ran just beforehand.
3. In scale and format this was the year today's TWIGF took shape — and a snapshot of how one Asian economy digested the global shock of GDPR.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Taiwan Internet Governance Forum 2018 (TWIGF 2018) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

📍 Held not in Taipei City proper but at Chunghwa Telecom's training academy in Banqiao, New Taipei City, within the Taipei metropolitan area

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. Two Days and a Youth IGF — The Forum Comes of Age

Sessions: Overall forum / internet governance camp and youth IGF (11–12 July)

• Sixteen workshops were selected from 25 proposals — 11 from business, 5 from government, none from academia, the rest from civil society — with a conflict-of-interest rule barring proposers from scoring their own submissions [1][2][3][4]
• Taiwan's first youth IGF camp preceded the forum, planned for about 45 trainees, featuring ICANN simulations and role-play, co-organised by NIIEPA and TWNIC with DotAsia's CEO instructing [1][2][3][4]
• Most sessions ran in Mandarin, with live streaming provided [1][2][3][4]

2. Cross-Border Data Governance in GDPR's First Weeks

Sessions: Day 1 workshops: data localisation, cross-border law enforcement and e-evidence, GDPR and data protection, digital competition, 5G security

• Meeting less than two months after GDPR took effect on 25 May 2018, Day 1 concentrated on cross-border data transfer, data localisation and cross-border access to e-evidence in the cloud [2][3]
• 5G security and digital competition law rounded out a day where telecom policy met national security [2][3]

3. Blockchain versus the Right to Be Forgotten

Sessions: Day 2 blockchain and cryptocurrency workshops (two sessions)

• The sessions confronted a structural clash: blockchain's immutability and decentralisation versus GDPR's rights to erasure and data portability [5][3]
• Participants advocated a preventive approach — keep personally identifiable information off the chain in the first place [5][3]
• A visiting NetMission ambassador reported approvingly that Taiwan's community treated GDPR not as a crisis but as directional guidance for responsible blockchain development [5][3]

4. TechGIRLS — Women in the Technical Community

Sessions: TechGIRLS roundtable (90 minutes, about 25 participants)

"Once you sit at the table, don't give your seat up easily"
— Peifen Hsieh (International Affairs Committee, TWNIC) [6]

• Moderated by Rio Kao of The News Lens, with women from Bitmark, Shopee, TWNIC and ICANN on the panel [6]
• The roundtable mapped five barriers women face everywhere in tech: lack of mentors, absence of role models, workplace gender bias, unequal growth opportunities and pay inequality [6]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. Where was it held — not Taipei?

A. At Chunghwa Telecom's training academy in Banqiao, New Taipei City, right next to Taipei. Same metropolitan area, but the forum doubled to two days and moved to a campus that could also host the youth camp.

Q. What was the biggest topic?

A. GDPR, in force for barely seven weeks. Its ripples ran through the whole forum — from cross-border data rules to the paradox that you cannot exercise the right to be forgotten on an immutable blockchain.

Q. Why should I care?

A. Every economy trading with Europe faced the same GDPR reckoning, and Taiwan's answer — plus its first youth IGF — shows how a mid-sized digital economy builds governance capacity.

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

Taiwan 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年臺灣網路治理論壇（大会公式アーカイブページ） — 臺灣網路治理論壇（TWIGF） (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. 2018臺灣網路治理論壇即將舉行 誠摯邀請各界參與（開催告知プレスリリース） — iThome (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. Introduce Taiwan IGF 2018 Briefly — YingChu Chen, Medium（TWIGF publication） (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. 關於2018年的台灣網路治理論壇 — YingChu Chen（TWIGF MSG）, Medium (accessed 2026-07-11)
5. Blockchain: New Internet Governance challenges — TWIGF 2018 — Alvin Ho, NetMission.Asia (accessed 2026-07-11)
6. TWIGF 2018 TechGIRLS — YingChu Chen, Medium（TWIGF publication） (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 23 July 2018, 12:00 (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