IGF 2015

Spam continues to be a significant problem for Internet users, creating a burden for developing countries, networks, operators and all end users. High volumes of unsolicited email can cause significant impacts to regions with limited Internet access as well as raise concerns for all regions with the increasing malware infections that come from unwanted email. Unsolicited email may be magnified in developing countries, where high volumes of incoming and outgoing spam can cause a severe drain on the limited and costly bandwidth that is available in those regions. Cooperation and partnerships among all stakeholders is needed to develop strategies and approaches to mitigating spam. For that reason, addressing the problem of spam requires a multistakeholder discussion and a framework of suggested approaches, including the need to engage governments in the discussion of how to reduce the threat and impact of spam globally. This discussion with a panel of experts will focus on the “Regulation and mitigation of unwanted communications (e.g. "spam") draft outcome document and will include examples of best practices they use to address the proliferation of spam in their regions/country’s that might be useful to include in the draft as possible recommendations. Output expected from the session would be review and consensus regarding the draft outcomes document, feedback on the text and indication of support for the for the recommendations and next steps that the report outlines