Building on the global dialogue initiated through the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Internet for Trust initiative, the second edition of the International Conference on Digital Platform Governance will take place from February 11 to 13, 2026, at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
The Internet for Trust initiative is an initiative that advances a multistakeholder effort to strengthen the governance of digital platforms in ways that uphold human rights, transparency, and accountability.
Co-hosted by the Information, Communication, Technologies, and Media Regulators Forum of South Africa and Social Media 4 Peace South Africa (SM4PSA), the event is organised with the support of UNESCO, the African Communication Regulation Authorities Network (ACRAN), the Francophone Network of Media Regulators (REFRAM), the I4T Knowledge Network, and the European Union.
This second edition will convene media and communication regulators, governments, electoral bodies, digital platforms, civil society, academia, and international and regional organisations from all regions to advance human rights–based and multistakeholder approaches to digital governance, and assess progress in the implementation of the UNESCO Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms.
The overall goal of the 2026 Conference is to strengthen collective engagement and participation in the global governance ecosystem. This includes ensuring digital platform governance actively upholds freedom of expression, access to information, and fundamental human rights; convening regulators, digital platforms, civil society, academia, and youth to collaboratively address global issues; jointly defining concrete and ambitious solutions to persistent challenges and gaps in digital platform governance; promoting evidence-based insights to enhance understanding and responses to emerging disruptions; and establishing mechanisms for knowledge sharing and effective strategies in platform governance.
Public plenaries and side events will take place throughout the conference, featuring regional perspectives, thematic discussions, and multistakeholder collaboration to strengthen freedom of expression and information integrity online.
The global conference will also mark the second annual gathering of the Global Forum of Networks (GFN), following its launch in 2024 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, during the first International Conference on Digital Platform Governance.
Furthermore, it will actively seek to advance the objectives, principles, commitments, and actions of the UN Global Digital Compact (GDC) to forge information integrity.
The conference will culminate in a collective, action-oriented declaration, a shared commitment endorsed by key stakeholder groups, reflecting both regional progress and a renewed determination to jointly address persistent and emerging challenges in digital platform governance.
The Pretoria Declaration will aim to propose concrete channels to sustain engagement beyond the conference.
More information about the conference will be available on UNESCO’s webpage.
