Home | Newsletters & Shorts | DW Weekly #220 – Diplo reporting from WSIS+20 High-Level Event in 2025, UN OEWG 2021-2025 11th substantive session reports, and more digital policy news!
DW Weekly #220 – Diplo reporting from WSIS+20 High-Level Event in 2025, UN OEWG 2021-2025 11th substantive session reports, and more digital policy news!
This week, cybersecurity faced heightened challenges as global instability, including conflicts like Israel-Palestine and US-Iran tensions, fueled a surge in cyberattacks, as per the report by GlobalData, which shows that rising geopolitical tensions are giving state actors, terrorists, hacktivists and cybercriminals more opportunities to strike, targeting critical infrastructure and escalating risks for businesses worldwide.
Ukraine is strengthening cybersecurity ties with the EU amid ongoing threats. Discussions in Rome focused on enhancing cybersecurity cooperation and establishing a joint Center of Competence for Cyber Resilience in Ukraine.
A new analysis by crypto commentator Stellar Rippler suggests that Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill may be part of a calculated effort to dismantle the current financial order. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is holding firm above $108,000, trading at $108,387 as of 8 July. Despite a slight daily dip, longer-term indicators support a bullish trend. On the other side of the Atlantic, more than 50 crypto firms are now fully licensed under the EU’s MiCA framework, six months after it came into effect. The list names 14 stablecoin issuers and 39 service providers approved to operate across the EU’s 30 member states, except Tether and Binance, which remain absent from the approved list.
Chip export control side effects
Data and content governance
Diplo Blog – Diplomacy is where there are no rules
He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.
–Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark
I’d made this comment recently in an off-hand sort of way. I’ve been challenged, so I must stand by my words: diplomacy is where there are no rules.
Let me explain the assertion with an analogy. At the dawn of the electronic age, gadgets were all stand-alone. They were not able to interconnect and communicate. Frustration all around. Slowly, protocols were established, growing into full-fledged interfaces. Now, it’s: ‘plug and play’. Until an agreement was reached on how to connect the two pieces of equipment, there were no rules – just an unexplored set of possibilities. Read the full blog!
WSIS+20 High-Level Event in 2025
Diplo has actively participated again, reporting just-in-time and spreading the diplomatic word as ever, with Dr Jovan Kurbalija, Head of Diplo and Geneva Internet Platform, who focused on how digital tools are reshaping diplomacy by fostering inclusivity and efficiency, urging a shift from reactive to proactive governance. He advocated mapping digital policy complexities—over 1,000 mechanisms tracked by the Geneva Internet Platform—to avoid duplication and enhance collaboration, proposing policy incubators and cooperation accelerators to connect diverse stakeholders. His vision, rooted in human-centric approaches, calls for balancing innovation with ethical oversight, a theme resonating throughout the event.
The event’s focus on inclusion, language, ethics, cybersecurity, skills, and humanitarian efforts reflects a holistic agenda, but also critical gaps such as funding disparities, regulatory weaknesses, and geopolitical divides, challenging the narrative of a unified digital future. The GDC synergy offers potential, yet its success hinges on addressing these structural issues and ensuring digital diplomacy evolves into actionable, equitable progress rather than remaining a well-intentioned dialogue.
AI for Good Global Summit 2025
In Case You Missed It
The OEWG on ICT security is concluding its work this week with its eleventh and final substantive session. We’ve been following developments closely with session reorts and will publish a full analysis next week—stay tuned.
For the main updates, reflections and events, consult the RADAR, the READING CORNER and the UPCOMING EVENTS section below.
Highlights from the week of 4 – 11 July 2025
From regulating AI to bridging the global digital divide, parliamentarians are redefining their roles to ensure that technology serves people, not the other way around.
Governments now face the reality that falling behind in AI capability could have serious geopolitical consequences, warns a new research report.
EU’s law aims to protect supply chains and ground systems supporting space missions.
From legal loopholes to breakthrough technologies, the global space community is charting a bold new course to make outer space a powerful ally in solving Earth’s most urgent challenges.
Microsoft and Salesforce report major cost savings and operational changes as AI replaces a significant portion of human-driven tasks.
Tech giants asked for a delay, but the EU is sticking to its original AI Act deadlines through 2026.
Geneva’s timeless role in global affairs is now expanding into the digital realm, where the future of diplomacy hinges on how we govern the technologies reshaping our world.
EU publishers accuse Google of misusing content in AI Overviews, claiming serious damage to their online visibility and income.
The departure of Apple’s foundation models leader reflects internal instability and Meta’s growing influence in AI development.
Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu criticised AI calls at Wimbledon, saying they led to key point losses and unfair match results.
Elon Musk revealed Grok 4, claiming it surpasses PhD-level knowledge, despite recent backlash over offensive AI-generated content.
Aalto and VTT researchers report over 1 millisecond coherence, a breakthrough for superconducting quantum devices.
Collaboration with Google DeepMind will support departments in deploying AI solutions across the public sector.
Shifting the focus from powerful algorithms to local voices, a global panel explored how AI can thrive in the Global South without leaving its communities behind.
Can Wikipedia teach diplomacy a lesson? Aldo Matteucci contrasts rigid hierarchies with messy, adaptive self-organising systems, and asks which one truly gets more done.
The AI Apprenticeship for International Organisations, developed by DiploFoundation, empowers professionals from entities like the UN, WHO, and CERN to create AI tools that enhance global cooperation.
Diplomacy begins where there are no rules – only open-ended possibilities. Aldo Matteucci explains how real diplomacy begins: with trial-and-error, creative thinking, and turning confusion into agreement.
As military AI becomes operational in today’s conflicts, the lack of regulation and accountability risks turning warfare into a domain governed by opaque algorithms and unchecked escalation.
Balancing synthetic media’s benefits with its risks will shape the future of digital communication and societies.
16 July 2025
The growing global demand for the Internet and digital services has consolidated data centers as critical infrastructures for international trade, technological innovation, environmental sustainability and digital sovereignty, highlighting their strategic centrality in the digital economy.
14 Jul 2025 – 23 Jul 2025
The 2025 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), will occur from 14 July to 23 July 2025.
