Belarus IGF 2018 — the 3rd Belarus Internet Governance Forum — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

The third Belarus IGF met at the Minsk Marriott Hotel on 3 October 2018, again organised by hoster.by within the UN framework with ICANN and RIPE NCC support.
The draft programme paired thematic sessions on e-government and on media and content with three roundtables — cybersecurity, online civic activism and IoT — featuring ISOC, ICANN, Facebook, Group-IB and SecDev speakers.
Billed by organisers on the strength of the previous year's 400-plus participants from 20 countries, it consolidated one of Eastern Europe's largest national IGFs — the stable years before the 2020–2022 hiatus.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on Belarus IGF 2018 — the 3rd Belarus Internet Governance Forum 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	Belarus IGF 2018 — the 3rd Belarus Internet Governance Forum
Edition	Third edition
Dates	3 October 2018
Venue	Minsk Marriott Hotel, 20 Pobediteley Avenue, Minsk
Theme	Regional governance themes
Host	hoster.by (Reliable Software, Ltd.), organised within the UN framework with ICANN and RIPE NCC support

(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. The Third Edition — an International Line-up, ISOC Included

Sessions: Overall programme, 3 October 2018 (draft)

After the opening plenary, ISOC's senior manager for regional affairs in Europe, Maarit Palovirta, was slated to present the Internet Society's view of internet governance [1][2][3]
The official English site stated the forum 'will be held in Minsk on October 3, 2018', listing hoster.by's Povalishev, ICANN's Alexandra Kulikova (Eastern Europe and Central Asia), RIPE NCC's Maxim Burtikov and Human Constanta's Alexey Kozliuk among speakers [1][2][3]
The venue repeated 2017's: the Minsk Marriott, 20 Pobediteley Avenue [1][2][3]

2. Three Roundtables — Cybersecurity, Civic Activism, IoT

Sessions: Roundtables, 14:30–16:00 (draft)

The cybersecurity roundtable — 'the internet as a zone of instability' — was moderated by Group-IB's Belarus business lead Alexander Sushko, with SecDev co-founder Rafal Rohozinski, the Emergencies Ministry, the military information agency Vayar and the state broadcaster [2]
The online-civic-activism roundtable, moderated by OEEC's Svetlana Zinkevich, drew Baltic Internet Policy Initiative's Mikhail Doroshevich, trade and IP officials, lawyers and the founder of e-commerce leader OZ.by [2]
The IoT roundtable was set to be moderated by ICANN VP Mikhail Yakushev, with Russia's internet ombudsman Marinichev and domain/telecom figures from Russia, Ukraine and Moldova [2]

3. E-Government and Media — with Facebook at the Table

Sessions: Thematic sessions, 12:00–13:30 (draft)

Two thematic sessions ran in parallel — e-government, and media and content, the latter with Facebook's head of relations with state and public organisations, Uliana Zinina [2][4]
E-government appearing for a third straight year underlines the forum's core concern: turning digital administration toward citizens [2][4]
The Steering Committee's September 2020 open letter, citing ministry support 'of the Forums over the past 4 years', officially corroborates the unbroken 2016–2019 run that includes this edition [2][4]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What kind of meeting was this?

A. The third Belarus IGF, at the Minsk Marriott: roundtables on cybersecurity, civic activism and IoT plus sessions on e-government and media, with ISOC, ICANN and Facebook speakers in the mix.

Q. What stands out?

A. The seating chart. Security agencies and state media shared a programme with a human-rights NGO and foreign companies — a balance characteristic of the Belarus IGF's stable years.

Q. Why should I care?

A. Putting a private threat-intelligence firm in the moderator's chair for cybersecurity, and platforms at the same table as officials, are design choices any national IGF can learn from.

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

Belarus 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.