Championing the Internet Way of Networking in Latin America

The Internet has radically transformed our lives for the better, and the year 2020 has shown us it will play an increasingly crucial role in our daily lives. This year, we embarked on a project to analyze what makes the Internet so useful for those with access, and work with partners worldwide to advocate for a strong Internet that will benefit many generations to come.

Among the many collaborations on the Internet Way of Networking (IWN), our work in Latin America was a clear highlight. Thanks to the community’s massive support, we produced meaningful outcomes that will form a strong base for our future work. As we take stock of the year, we would like to celebrate the achievements and look to reaching greater heights in 2021.

Mapping the Regulatory Landscape

Engaging the community in the first half of the year, we asked experts in the region to help us map and monitor the regulatory regimes that applied to Internet intermediaries in their respective countries. Following a survey conducted between March and June, we produced (through the outstanding work of Paula Côrte Real) a map of the regulatory landscape in eight countries in the region. The exercise helped us Continue reading

Chapter Members Pool Ideas to Inspire New Use Case on Content Filtering

Earlier this year, chapter members from around the world were asked to assist a government minister with an important project. The minister had been tasked with giving an emergency briefing on content filtering and needed the chapter members to help assess an important question. Would the critical properties of the Internet Way of Networking – the foundation that makes the Internet work for everyone – be impacted by the minister’s new policy on content filtering?

While some of the Chapter members held experience in Internet policy, others were relative novices. But as they explored the multiple dimensions and implications of different filtering and blocking techniques, they had a new, powerful tool in their arsenal: the Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit.

The government minister was fictitious, part of a mock scenario created by the Internet Society in collaboration with chapter members participating in chapter workshops. It was a powerful demonstration of how the Internet Impact Assessment Toolkit can evaluate the real-world impact of proposed Internet policy.

During the Latin American Chapter Workshop, about 140 people joined the session dedicated to the discussion of content filtering. Once the mock case was presented, participants were invited to explore the various angles of different filtering and Continue reading

Mapping Intermediary Liability in Latin America

Thanks to our Chapters in Latin America, we now have a clearer map of the intermediary liability regulatory landscape across the region.

Intermediary liability answers the question, “Should Internet intermediaries (ISPs, web hosting and cloud services, social media platforms, etc.)  be liable for content posted or for actions performed by others, such as, for example, their users?”

The success of the Internet depends on intermediary liability regimes that protect Internet providers – by ensuring responsibility for user behavior is on the users themselves, not on the intermediaries upon which they rely (both at the infrastructure and content layers).

The way legal frameworks deal with intermediary liability around the world can impact the Internet way of networking in different ways.

In some countries, intermediary liability legislation is well known: the 1996 US Communications Decency Act (Section 230) and the Brazilian Internet Bill of Rights, for example. But in much of the world it is covered by other more general-purpose regulations, such as tort law, consumer protection law, and child protection law.

We asked our local community to help us map and monitor the current regimes that apply to Internet intermediaries in their countries, so that our work can Continue reading

Every Day Should Be Safer Internet Day

Safer Internet Day is an opportunity for people and organizations around the world to join forces in a series of activities and events dedicated to working towards a more secure Internet. I’m really excited to take part in the activities organized by the Brazilian hub of Safer Internet Day, where the topic of encryption in the Latin American and the Carribean region is going to be discussed in one of the panels.

It’s great to have a day dedicated to building a more secure Internet for everyone, however, the reality for most people championing digital security is that every day is safer Internet day. This is certainly the case at the Internet Society. Our global community of staff, Chapters, members, partners, and supporters are deeply committed to an open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet for all. That’s why we aligned our 2020 Action Plan to focus on building a bigger and stronger Internet for everyone.

Digital security is the foundation of our connected economies and societies – and encryption is the bedrock of digital security. It protects the integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity of data and communications. And as a colleague of mine always says, “when we fail to protect data, Continue reading