Digital dissent in Latin America: How the Internet is impacting organizing and dissent in Latin America

Presented at Still Hacking Anyway (SHA2017), Aug. 7, 2017, 3:35 p.m. (60 minutes)

The Internet isn't global. Only half of the world is connected to the Internet, English is still the largest language in terms of content and knowledge is increasingly privatized either through patented code (owned mostly by Sillicon Valley companies) or via obscure trade agreements pushed by the United States. How is the Internet used in Latin America to organize, resist repression and counter digital colonialism? #Society #Patents #Politics Digital dissidence makes more sense in weak democratic contexts. Expression through public spaces, services and infrastructures become crucial when offline realities are dangerous, or when narratives are coopted. Nonetheless in Latin America, online structures are themselves tools for marginalization: not everyone is connected, and those who are cannot make intermediaries accountable. In this talk we'll look at several cases in the region ranging from ciberfeminist intiatives, to alternative networks and protest movements in the region. *Can we imagine different ways of organizing?*

Presenters:

  • Niels ten Oever
    Niels implemented freedom of expression projects in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Northern Africa, Brazil and Afghanistan and worked on global Internet governance issues in ICANN, IETF, IEEE and ITU. Niels started off working on radio when he got bitten by the Linux bug. After that he increasingly worked on websites, apps, internet governance, digital rights and digital security. Why? Because technology can support democratic processes by improving freedom of expression, access to information and organizing. Peer-to-peer is far more interesting than one-to-many. Niels is a free and open source software enthusiast who has trained journalists, activists and human rights defenders in reporting, activist engagement strategies in Internet governance fora, digital security, and media production. Niels holds a cum laude research MA in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam where he currently is a PhD candidate in the topic of Data Activism. Niels furthermore promises that this was the last time he wrote about himself in the third person. Twitter: @nielstenoever
  • gisela
    Lawyer and journalist working on free speech and gender in the digital environment. Policy analyst at Derechos Digitales, a Latin American NGO fighting for human rights online. Twitter: @giselilla

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