The 1st Big Techs, Information, and Democracy Seminar took place in Sao Paulo, organized by the Forum on Information and Democracy in collaboration with Intervozes and Coalizão Direitos na Rede. The seminar brings together civil society organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay to discuss the specific challenges related to platform regulations in the region, propose solutions to better combat information chaos and provide guardrails to protect human rights in the digital space.
The seminar, taking place on December 5 and 6, delved into four key themes: Platform Regulation Experiences in Latin America, Technological Sovereignty and Autonomous Alternatives for Online Dissemination, Economic Regulation of Digital Platforms, and Digital Literacy and the Construction of Alternatives.
Speakers highlighted that Brazil is serving as a model for the region as it is the first country to adopt a proactive approach with Bill 2630. João Brant, Secretary of Digital Policies at the Special Secretariat for Communication of the Presidency of the Republic (Secom), acknowledged the challenges faced in the first year of Lula’s government regarding platform regulation. He also emphasized the government’s focus on essential issues such as media education, misinformation, sustainability and media remuneration by platforms.
Camille Grenier, Operations Director of the Forum, insisted on the “importance for the Forum on Information and Democracy to elevate experience and expertise from different regions in its international work. This 1st Seminar is a great opportunity to strengthen our collaboration with civil society and policy makers in the region.”
Following the panels, seminar participants actively engaged in working groups with the objective to develop concrete proposals for each of the addressed topics. The sessions underscored the importance of building a collective and interdisciplinary approach in Latin American. As emphasized by the participants, European laws will provide a testing ground but it is essential to develop diverse approaches globally to evaluate various solutions.
The 1st Big Techs, Information, and Democracy Seminar marks a significant step toward building a common vision on platform regulation in the region to urge the political leaders to take actions in order to protect democracies and the information space. The Forum intends to support more organizations in the region and plans to organize a series of seminars to further the development of a regional agenda for digital platform regulations in Latin America.
