The French Internet Governance Forum (FGI France) 2025

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11/03/2025

The next edition of the Internet Governance Forum – France (FGI France) will take place on November 13, 2025. It is part of an international network characterized by a spirit of cooperation and dialogue. Its ambition is to provide an opportunity for all national stakeholders involved in digital issues to meet and debate. Its aim is to facilitate the clarification of issues, mutual understanding, and cooperation.

Interview with Nicolas Chagny, President of the Internet Society France:

The French Internet Governance Forum (FGI France) has been jointly organised by the Internet Society France with the support of Afnic for a number of years now. What is special about this French edition?

Our credo is openness surrounding the societal challenges of the digital industry. That is the hallmark I wanted to develop since becoming co-Chair of the Organising Committee alongside Lucien Castex (Adviser to the CEO Internet Governance and Society at Afnic). The IGF has at times been inward-looking and egocentric when it comes to pure governance issues, to the detriment of non-specialist contributions.

The FGI France aims to be just the opposite. It covers societal issues and focuses on stakeholder organisation and the key measures in response to these challenges.

Which is also why we have announced the theme for this year’s FGI France workshops: the digital industry of tomorrow. These workshops will be run regularly throughout the year, both online and in-person, thanks to the members of the Organising Committee, in order to keep up a steady flow of exchanges. Last spring we were in Varzy, in the Nièvre department of France, for example.

What will be the hot topics for this 2025 edition?

As always, the FGI France will be a forum for discussion through various workshops: AI and territories, post-quantum Internet, the right not to use the Internet. We will also be looking at the stakes surrounding the 20^th anniversary of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at which the UN renewed the mandate of the IGF.

Our plenary session will concentrate on responsible artificial intelligence, providing an opportunity to take stock of the need for education on AI and to share different viewpoints on the conscious and responsible use of these technologies.

AI will also be the central element of the game ZOÉ vs. ADAM which will be divided into two parts, a morning session and an afternoon session run by the CollectivZ team: when the AI A.D.A.M. decides to take control of humanity, the participants will need to use AI engines to stop it. A fun activity that will involve a wide range of uses of the tools, but which will also demonstrate that collective intelligence is first and foremost a human intelligence.

Lastly, Christopher Mondini (Managing Director and VP of Stakeholder Engagement in Europe for ICANN), Benjamin Louis (Creator of .alsace, CEO of Sparkling) and Pierre Bonis (CEO of Afnic) will be talking about the headline event of 2026: the new ICANN gTLD round set to open next spring.

What wish will you be making for the 20th anniversary of the IGF?

It was the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis that decided to create the Internet Governance Forum and entrust its coordination to the UN. The multi-stakeholder structure of the Internet entails the need for a forum for discussion and standardisation. Which is what brought about the establishment of national IGFs, like the FGI France.

My wish for the IGF is that it be a tool for both discussions and proposals in order to turn the bright ideas that emerge from the exchanges into concrete, operational realities.