The biggest internet governance event coming up is the Internet Governance Forum, which takes place in Bali from 22-25 October.  This year’s theme is “Enhancing Multi-stakeholder Cooperation for Growth and Sustainable Development”, but considering the revelations about US and UK internet surveillance programmes and the other issues being dealt with by policy makers at national and supra-national levels some more contentious issues will also likely be on the table. Here’s a look at what EU and UK policy makers have on their agendas and might be bringing up in Bali as well as some related events in the UK and Brussels for those not making it to Bali.

European level

At the European level, three important aspects of internet policy being discussed are: net neutrality, data protection, and surveillance. On the net neutrality front, the European Commission released in early September a new Telecoms Package, which some have argued falls short of the open internet promised by EC Vice-President Neelie Kroes because of its approach to net neutrality. The package is now in the hands of the European Parliament and lobbying from industry and activists is certainly already under way.

Perhaps Neelie Kroes will be able to respond to her critics at the European Data Protection Congress, where she is scheduled as keynote speaker, although the event will mostly focus on privacy and data protection. In 2012, the European Commission introduced its proposal for a reform of the data protection rules, and since then the issue has been taken on by the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and by the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) As has been pointed out by some observers, not all member states have the same position on these issues, and there are questions about how to make policy in this area “future-proof” in the face of technological developments.

At the moment, the new Data Protection directive is expected to be adopted before the next European Parliament elections, in May 2014, and to become effective in 2016.

On the issue of surveillance, in early July LIBE launched an inquiry on Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens, in the light of the revelations about PRISM. At the moment, the Committee is still receiving evidence, such the recent report from Caspar Bowden. An “indicative plenary sitting date” is forecast for January 2014, and around that date LIBE is expected to report on the evidence collected and issue its recommendations.

UK Level

At the UK level, nothing significant is expected concerning these aspects of internet governance, since the draft Communications Data bill was put on hold in May of this year, and later the Parliament exonerated the British GCHQ in its dealings with the PRISM programme. Activists are working on petitioning the government for answers about the country’s own surveillance programme, Tempora, but things have been remarkably quiet about the issues of online surveillance and privacy in the UK. It is worth mentioning, however, that the Information Commissioner’s Office has a consultation on the new code of practice for Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs), which enable organisations to identify and manage the privacy risks involved in any project.

An aspect of internet governance where the British Government has been more active is online safety, in particular in the area of child protection. In a speech delivered on 22 July, David Cameron announced the Government’s intention to crack down on online pornography by requiring ISPs to set “family friendly filters” ‘on’ by default. The same intention was restated in the communications strategy paper “Connectivity, content and consumers”, published on 30 July, which will be discussed at a Westminster Media Forum (WMF) event on 29 October. This issue, which triggered a significant amount of controversy and suggestions, was taken on by the House of Commons Committee on Culture, Media and Sports, in an inquiry that closed on 30 September and is expected to report in the coming months. Perhaps it will come out in time for the WMF event on this issue in January 2014.

Surveillance, data protection and children’s safety online might not be obviously connected to the IGF’s agenda of growth and sustainable development. Nevertheless these very controversial topics are occupying UK and EU level policy makers at the moment. They will probably be coming to the IGF prepared to talk about them, and no doubt there will those among the civil society groups prepared to argue their positions on these issues as well.

This article gives the views of the author, and does not represent the position of the LSE Media Policy Project blog, nor of the London School of Economics.