The G7 states have dealt with the topic of the Internet since the end of the 1990s. The "G7 Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society" issued in the year 2000 set the tone for a global Internet policy and founded the DOTForce (Digital Opportunity Task Force), one of the first global networks in which governmental and non-governmental representatives worked together on an equal footing.
With the G8 Deauville Declaration of 2014 (in which also the Russian President Medvedev was involved), seven principles were agreed for Internet Governance, including the principle of multistakeholderism.
Under the Japanese G7 Presidency in 2017, a separate meeting of ministers responsible for the digital economy and a preceding multistakeholder conference was introduced. Meanwhile, Internet issues are also on the agendas of the G7 Meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, of the Interior and Defence.
Conference Reports on: G7