Around the world, the Internet Society’s 130 chapters and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) work locally, regionally, and globally to keep the Internet a force for good: open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy. Each month, we provide a brief overview of just some of the things they have achieved in the previous month.
Spotlight on Gabon—Proactive Advocacy Works
🇬🇦 Gabon Chapter published a statement congratulating the Gabon government for keeping the Internet on during the 2025 presidential election. The Internet was shut down during the last election in 2023, and since then, the chapter has been advocating to keep the Internet on during elections. Congratulations Gabon Chapter—proactive advocacy works!
Cross Border Mobilization
🇸🇪 26 chapters signed an open letter pushing back on the Swedish government’s proposed legislation (Ju2024/02286), which threatens online security and privacy by mandating access to user communications, even end-to-end encrypted ones. Thanks to the Sweden Chapter for all its support.
Chapter Collaboration
🌍 Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger, and Togo Chapters joined forces to celebrate Girls in ICT Day 2025, with an online event: Girls in ICT for an Inclusive Digital Transformation.
Co-Creation
🌎 As part of the Internet Society’s work on online trust and safety (OTS), we are working with our community to equip recently connected people with the knowledge and skills to protect themselves and their communities online. We’ve held two sessions so far.
The Brazil, Lebanon, Lesotho, Mali, Mexico, Peru, and Paraguay Chapters gathered for our first session to share experiences and lessons learned from their own work on developing OTS training. For our second session, 14 chapters—Benin, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Tanzania, and Uruguay—worked to develop an empathy map.
Anniversaries
Congratulations to these chapters celebrating their milestone chartering anniversaries in April:
- 🇨🇲 Cameroon Chapter: 25th anniversary
- 🇨🇦 Canada Québec Chapter: 25th anniversary
- 🇰🇲 Comoros Chapter: 5th anniversary
- 🇳🇵 Nepal Chapter: 1st anniversary
Chapter Activities
🇦🇷 Argentina Chapter celebrated Girls in ICT Day with an inspiring event aimed at encouraging young girls to explore careers in technology. The session featured powerful voices from organizations such as UN Women, Chicas en Tecnología, Girl Up, and others. The event created a space for dialogue, motivation, and empowerment, highlighting the importance of gender inclusion in the tech sector and sparking new tech aspirations among girls and young women across the country.
🇦🇲 Armenia Chapter’s educational program, Improving Cybersecurity and Technological Skills of the Elderly, was launched to help older adults manage their everyday lives securely and independently. This activity is supported by the Internet Society Foundation’s Beyond the Net grant program.
🇧🇷 Brazil Chapter joined forces with the Federal Institute of Sertão (IFSertãoPE) for the Hackathon on Community Networks, held in Salgueiro, Pernambuco. The event brought together innovators to explore meaningful connectivity solutions for the region and the collaboration highlighted the power of local innovation to drive digital inclusion and strengthen community-driven Internet access.
🇨🇲 Cameroon Chapter trained over 30 parents and leaders of local civil society organizations in the northern region of Cameroon on Internet safety and child protection online. This is part of a project funded by the Internet Society Foundation’s Beyond the Net grant program.
🇪🇨 Ecuador Chapter hosted a free webinar on data privacy. The session focused on the legal and regulatory framework for data privacy in Ecuador, complemented by international perspectives on protecting personal data.
🇪🇬 Egypt Chapter webcast presented the third in its infrastructure webinar series with an engaging session on Powering Up Digital Infrastructure. The session explored the challenges involved in energy policy, the sustainability agendas of global players, renewable energy potential, and nuclear energy, all in the scope of datacenter and artificial intelligence platforms.
🇮🇳 India Mumbai Chapter held a webinar entitled Vision for Accessible Internet: Bridging the Digital Divide for the Visually Impaired. The session focused on practical solutions, sharing expertise, and exploring innovative technologies to make the Internet more accessible. The session emphasized the need for accessible tools while highlighting challenges like inaccessible government sites, connectivity gaps, and the impact of Internet shutdowns on persons with disabilities. Key reforms were advocated, including stronger enforcement of disability rights laws and regional language support in assistive tech. The concrete outcome of this session was the State Resource Centre on Disability Affairs (SRCDA) committing to bold next steps: reaching 50,000 persons with disabilities by 2030, launching hackathons, experience labs, and awareness programs across communities!
People with disabilities make up more than 15% of the global population, representing the world’s largest minority. Join our Accessibility Standing Group to advocate for digital inclusion for those with disabilities.
The chapter also kicked off its ICANN Mentors Forum sessions this month. Participants left with a stronger understanding of how to engage with ICANN’s working groups, advisory committees, and regional structures. The forum succeeded in showing that ICANN is not just for technical experts—it is a living ecosystem where diverse voices are vital, and where individuals can grow as leaders shaping the digital future.
🇮🇱 Israel Chapter published a report Quantifying Inclusion & Online Safety: Insights and Data on Internet Use and Digital Literacy in Arab Society in Israel. The report was developed with the support of the Internet Society Foundation’s Beyond the Net grant program.
🇮🇹 Italy Chapter got creative with an experimental project in Partinico, Sicily, staging an original theatrical performance inspired by the history of the Internet pioneers and the evolutionary prospects of the digital ecosystem.
🇱🇧 Lebanon Chapter signed a Public-Private-Community Partnership (PPCP) Trilateral memorandum of understanding between the Office of the Minister of Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence (MITAI), the Professional Computer Association of Lebanon (PCA), and the chapter. This strategic initiative aims to revitalize Lebanon’s digital ecosystem, laying the foundation for a resilient, knowledge-driven economy and positioning Lebanon as a regional hub for digital innovation and sustainable growth.
🇲🇦 Morocco Chapter travelled to the heart of the Sahara Desert as part of the 20th edition of the International Nomads Festival to launch The Drâa Digital Caravan, an initiative to empower young nomads with digital skills. The chapter trained 30+ young nomads on essential digital skills, online safety, and how to use the Internet to preserve their cultural heritage.
🇲🇱 Mali Chapter organized a hybrid activity during the Internet Society Africa and Middle East Community Day. Alongside the attendees, a representative of the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy and a former ITU secretary general, Dr. Toure, joined to hear how Internet Society chapters across these two regions are building a stronger, more resilient, and trustworthy Internet. And, to round off the celebrations, Dr. Toure highlighted the work that the Internet Society and the Mali Chapter are doing on national television.
Our 2025 Community Days celebrate Internet Society members and everything they’ve accomplished over the last few years. Register now to be part of our upcoming events.
🇳🇪 Niger Chapter launched its training courses on peering and managing IXPs.
🇵🇾 Paraguay Chapter organized the first Workshop of the Itaipu Technical Communities in Alto Paraná, Paraguay, focusing on building capacity around the use of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). With the participation of experts from the chapter, ICANN, and Itaipu Binacional, the event featured theoretical and practical sessions covering the fundamentals, configuration, and advanced applications of BGP. The workshop aimed to establish a local technical community through hands-on exercises, real-world case discussions, and the distribution of materials to support ongoing local development.
🇵🇪 Peru Chapter hosted a webinar to explore the evolution of the Internet and the challenges it currently faces. The session aimed to foster local dialogue on how global Internet trends impact connectivity, access, and digital rights in the country.
🇵🇰 Pakistan Islamabad Chapter produced a video about its Universal Acceptance Day activities.
🇷🇼 Rwanda Chapter successfully completed another two-week, hands-on training on digital parenting and online safety in two school districts of Rwanda. This training equipped parents with essential digital skills, including smartphone usage, data storage, and safe Internet practices. This initiative is part of the chapter’s Digital Parenting and Online Safety project, funded by the Internet Society Foundation’s Beyond the Net grant program.
🇪🇸 Spain Catalonia Chapter published a statement expressing concern over the judicial order mandating the blocking of IP addresses brought about by LaLiga in an effort to stop pirated football match broadcasts. The chapter argued that such measures are disproportionate, harm many innocent users, and threaten network neutrality and open Internet principles.
🇸🇪 Sweden Chapter board member Fredrik Lindeberg was interviewed on one of Sweden’s main radio stations, talking about the Swedish government’s proposed legislation (Ju2024/02286), which threatens online security and privacy. This was a direct result of an open letter that the Sweden Chapter and 22 other Internet Society chapters signed.
🇹🇬 Togo Chapter’s Universal Acceptance Day event took place at the Polytechnic School of the University of Lome and was attended by 300+ students. The chapter used the opportunity to talk about the Internet Society and register 200 new members!
The Chapter also mobilized to publish a statement calling for better Internet resilience, highlighting the economic impact of Internet disruptions after the electricity blackouts in Europe affected the country’s Internet.
Find out how resilient your country’s Internet is on Internet Society Pulse.
🇻🇪 Venezuela Chapter marked Universal Acceptance Day with a free event in Valencia, Carabobo. The event featured talks and technical workshops on how to make the Internet more inclusive by supporting domain names and email addresses in local languages and scripts. Speakers from ICANN and CLISI addressed the technical, legal, and governance aspects of Universal Acceptance—key to ensuring that everyone can fully participate in the Internet, regardless of language or script.
🇿🇼 Zimbabwe Chapter partnered with Solusi University, Zimbabwe Research Network, and ZICTA (ICT directors group for universities) to successfully organize a hands-on training workshop on utilizing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite solutions to enhance Internet resilience across the country. Many of the universities that are part of ZICTA operate Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and there was discussion on how to implement LEO solutions for redundancy, scaling up of server rooms, and DNS resolution servers to reduce latency. Representatives from ZIMREN, the sole ISP for academia in Zimbabwe, were also trained on how to use LEO technologies to improve the fiber and radio links it operates. A working group was established at the end of the workshop to advocate for the adoption of LEO technologies in Zimbabwe. This work is supported by the Internet Society Foundation’s Sustainable Technical Communities grant program.
If you’re interested in discussing more about LEO Satellites, join our community LEO Chatter Group.
The chapter has also implemented an IoT for Apiary project aimed at transforming the lives of rural beekeepers in the Mashonaland Province. So far, 30 farmers have been trained to use IoT devices to monitor bee health and ensure the sustainability of their hives, a project funded by the Internet Society Foundation’s Beyond the Net grant program.
Get involved! Find your local Internet Society chapter and take action at a local level to make global change.
Image © Internet Society Niger Chapter, © Internet Society Cameroon Chapter, © Internet Society Lebanon Chapter, © Internet Society Mali Chapter, © Internet Society Rwanda Chapter, © Internet Society Togo Chapter