The year of 2020 and 2021 has been bringing the internet to the forefront of public debate as pandemic lurked in. The internet has provided solutions to the restriction of gathering in curbing the virus, while on the other hand, the landscape also presented its own emerging issues and trends. As a region with enormous internet economy potential (US$72bn contributed by 350 million internet users), Southeast Asian countries come with diverse internet-related issues (e.g. cybersecurity, net neutrality, online rights, youth and digital innovation). These issues have been triggering dissenting views from different stakeholders. 

In a global setting, following such a need to include, consider, and invite these stakeholders’ perspectives, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) initiated the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2006 and has since been holding the Forum annually.

Therefore, with aforementioned internet economy size and users, as well as diverse stakeholders’ views, Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics, along with the Indonesia Internet Governance Forum (ID-IGF), perceive the region is at importance to host its own regional-based Internet Governance Forum (IGF), succeeding valuable move initiated by WSIS and IGF Global.