Far Right > Digital Rights: The Precarity of Free Expression, Internet Access, Net Neutrality and Data Privacy in Bolsonaro’s Brazil

Abstract

The election of Jair Bolsonaro to the Brazilian Presidency in 2018 was a politically destabilising event with far-reaching consequences. The fate of digital rights in Brazil was particularly impacted, with the legacy of the celebrated Marco Civil da Internet rights charter called into question. By examining the many ways that the fragile gains of the Marco Civil were corroded during the Bolsonaro presidency – including systematic attacks on freedom of expression online, disinformation campaigns, the violation of network neutrality through zero rating, and the continuing assault on privacy rights – we can understand the multi-pronged nature of Bolsonaro’s assault on the public sphere in Brazil as well as the inadequacy of digital rights in safeguarding against the conjoined threats of platform capitalism and far-right populism.

KEYWORDS:

• digital rights
• Brazil
• Marco Civil
• zero-rating
• network neutrality
• privacy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This article was written with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded Global Media & Internet Concentration Project.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guy T. Hoskins

Guy T. Hoskins (corresponding author) is a post-doctoral research fellow with the Global Media & Internet Concentration Project in the School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa.