LACIGF 14

Update on National and Regional Internet Initiatives and the Youth IGF

The role of technology in situations of tension in democratic regimes: How can internet governance contribute to the deployment of technology with a fundamental rights approach?

The recent pandemic and political and social upheavals in the region have highlight the role that technology and information (communicated and disseminated over the internet) can play in confronting a crisis. At the same time, recent experience shows how digital technologies can accentuate the risks of control and exclusion through mass, normalized surveillance under the pretext of a crisis.

This LACIGF session seeks to contribute to an understanding of the current challenges related to how a fundamental rights approach can be promoted in the deployment of technologies in crisis situations, as opposed to the idea that guarantees should be suspended in these scenarios, showing the contribution that can be made from an Internet governance perspective to ensure the legality, necessity, and proportionality of the technological deployments that are adopted to help mitigate crisis scenarios. During the session, different points of view and examples will be shared regarding:

• The type of deployments that have been developed in the region as a result of the different crises that have been experienced, including the health crisis in the context of the pandemic, crises motivated by political disruption processes, institutional crises focused on social demands, and economic crises derived from political and social instability;
• What the various stakeholders can contribute for the development of technological responses that are more in line with the exercise of fundamental rights; and
• Transparency and accountability mechanisms for the different stakeholders in relation to the different processes for digital technology development and utilization.

Format: Multistakeholder panel where the various actors can each share their perspective

Opportunities for the integration of the regional digital economy

The global economy is currently a digitized economy. The development of the Latin American and Caribbean digital ecosystem involves significant local and national challenges, such as the deployment of connectivity networks and the expansion of access, but also challenges that require a transnational perspective because of the very nature the Internet, which transcends geographical barriers.

The region offers great opportunities for the digital economy to grow, supported on the deployment of more and better networks and on transnational agreements that promote integration and trade. This growth, however, is currently hindered by different barriers.

These barriers may be of logistic, bureaucratic, due to lack of legal and regulatory harmonization, or the result of a lack of infrastructure. In many cases, regulatory regimes have not been adapted to the advances of new technologies. Dialogue through supranational forums and with the participation of public and private actors, the technical community, civil society, and academia is essential to better understand in which direction we should advance and how we should move forward.

Today, multiple commercial negotiation and regional integration processes can be identified where clauses related to the digital economy are discussed and sometimes included. In both the Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance, progress has been made towards agreements on digital policy issues. In addition, certain countries such as Mexico and Chile have entered into digital agreements that transcend Latin America (USMCA and DEPA, respectively). At the same time, these issues are being discussed on global scenarios.

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• Moderator - Alejandro Patiño - CEPAL