20th Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum 2025 (20th BIGF) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

From 30 October to 1 November 2025 the 20th Bangladesh IGF met in hybrid form in Dhaka under the theme 'Building Digital Governance in Global South', with 'father of the internet' Vint Cerf sending a solidarity address to the opening.
The first full-scale forum under the leadership installed after the August 2024 uprising, it put the interim government's ICT special assistant in the closing chief-guest seat and tackled the Cyber Security Act and free expression, disinformation and media trust, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Twenty editions on from 2006 — among the oldest national IGFs in South Asia — it stands as a live case study of how a national IGF reboots after a change of regime, with the UN IGF Secretariat's NRI focal point adding the UN's own message of solidarity.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on 20th Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum 2025 (20th BIGF) 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	20th Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum 2025 (20th BIGF)
Dates	30 October – 1 November 2025
Venue	Dhaka, Bangladesh (hybrid; the venue name is not specified in official materials)
Theme	Building Digital Governance in Global South (The opening session was titled 'Building Digital Governance in Bangladesh' and the closing session 'Bangladesh Context: Building Digital Governance in the Global South')
Host	Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum (BIGF; 2024–26 executive committee chaired by Mohammad Aminul Hakim), co-organized with the Internet Society Bangladesh Chapter
Note	20th edition, marking two decades since BIGF's founding in 2006

(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 — A Solidarity Address from Vint Cerf at the 20th Milestone

Sessions: Session 02, Opening Ceremony 'Building Digital Governance in Bangladesh' (30 October, 16:00–17:30)

Vint Cerf — Google VP, Chief Internet Evangelist and one of the 'fathers of the internet' — sent a solidarity address, lending international weight to the 20th milestone [1]
Professor Hakikur Rahman of International Standard University keynoted on 'Digital Governance: Empowering an Inclusive and Intelligent Bangladesh', with veteran organizer A.H.M. Bazlur Rahman delivering the welcome [1]
APNIC Executive Council member Sumon Ahmed Sabir and ICANN's South Asia engagement manager also spoke, and the day opened with a newcomers' orientation on fellowship pathways — a deliberate next-generation focus [1]

2. Governance After the Uprising — the Cyber Security Act, Free Expression and Disinformation

Sessions: Session 09 on the Cyber Security Act and freedom of expression, and on media and digital trust in the age of disinformation (1 November, 14:30–15:45)

A dedicated session sought a 'balanced path' between the Cyber Security Act — successor to laws criticised as tools of suppression under the previous government — and freedom of expression [1][2]
The companion talk on media and digital trust in the disinformation age drew AFP's digital verification editor, a Jamuna TV researcher and a national daily's science and ICT head, grounding the debate in fact-checking practice [1][2]
The closing chief guest was Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, the interim government's special assistant for posts, telecommunications and IT, with a BIGF vice-chair who serves as an International Crimes Tribunal prosecutor moderating — the post-uprising state, visible on stage [1][2]

3. TFGBV and Three-Generation Inclusion — UN Agencies on the Gender-Violence Panel

Sessions: Session 08 on combating technology-facilitated gender-based violence (1 November, 11:30–13:30); Session 07 Kids IGF; Session 03 Youth

The TFGBV session seated UNFPA, UN Women, Plan International and IPAS alongside a senior judge from the national legal aid agency — UN agencies and practitioners on one panel [1]
The Kids IGF, 'Smart Kids, Safe Internet', ran workshop-style with school students, while the youth session brought in the Youth IGF India coordinator, framing Global South youth cooperation [1]
Sessions on bridging the AI and digital divide, and student presentations linking rural food systems with digital literacy, kept inclusion running through all three days [1]

4. Plugging into the UN — Anja Gengo's Solidarity Address and the Global South Frame

Sessions: Session 10, Closing 'Bangladesh Context: Building Digital Governance in the Global South' (1 November, 16:00–17:30)

Anja Gengo, the UN IGF Secretariat's focal point for national, regional and youth IGF initiatives, delivered a solidarity address at the closing — symbolising the pipe between the national forum and UN processes [1][2][3]
A.H.M. Bazlur Rahman's closing keynote pulled the 'building digital governance in the Global South' theme through the Bangladesh context, with Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum general secretary Sanjeeb Drong adding minority perspectives [1][2][3]
The vote of thanks fell to new chairperson Mohammad Aminul Hakim (a former ISPAB president) — the post-uprising 2024–26 executive committee closing out the 20th-anniversary edition [1][2][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What changed at the 20th edition?

A. Who runs it. This was the first full forum under the executive committee elected after the August 2024 uprising, chaired by industry veteran Aminul Hakim — the ruling-party politicians who once presided were gone from the stage.

Q. What was the boldest topic?

A. The Cyber Security Act versus free expression: how to balance the successor to laws once used for suppression, debated with the interim government's ICT special assistant and AFP's verification editor in the room.

Q. Why should I care?

A. A national forum drawing direct messages from Vint Cerf and the UN IGF Secretariat shows how the NRI system ties countries into global internet governance — and its disinformation and TFGBV agendas mirror debates everywhere.

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

Bangladesh 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 2025 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.