The Digital Rigths Movement in Latin America

Abstract

This study presents a brief and partial history of the Latin American digital rights movement. It seeks to tell its story, as situated within a broader frame of normative commitments regarding Internet freedom threatened by regulation. This phenomenon---that we call "regulatory threats"---is hypothesized (H1) as the main explanation for the rise of the movement in Latin America, something that is both consistent with theory and the history of the movement elsewhere. The paper also introduces the concept of "regulatory displacement" to describe both the challenging nature of Internet governance and the fact that the power of regulating the Internet lies---to a relevant extent---outside the narrow scope of nation states. We consider this phenomenon to be particularly acute in Latin America, and we pose that this must have affected the way the Latin American movement developed (H2). We test both hypotheses against two datasets, one formed by coded interviews with ten activists conducted towards the end of 2021 and a database of projects and publications built from the websites of seven Latin American organizations, covering the period 2000-2021. We produce a descriptive account based on traditional concerns and concepts in social movements research, such as political opportunities, access to resources, organizational modes, repertoires of action, and so on. We consider that our data strongly supports the first hypothesis and partially supports the second one, although further research is needed. Some of the challenges identified within the movement in terms of influencing the political process are consistent with "regulatory displacement", a fact that shapes the way the movement has developed until now and will likely affect its future.