Is Facebook the internet? Ethnographic perspectives on open internet governance in Brazil

Publication Title

Law and Social Inquiry

ISSN

08976546

E-ISSN

17474469

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article explores the ideals of open Internet governance in Brazil. I examine Brazil's Internet law, the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), which promotes the right to Internet access, online privacy, and net neutrality. The MCI's ideals of a free and open Internet are challenged by Internet companies, such as Facebook, which offer zero-rating promotions that provide limited, free mobile data to low-income subscribers. I juxtapose the ideals of openness embodied in the regulatory sphere of the MCI with those of Brazil's cultura livre (free culture) movement to show the ascendance of open values in Brazilian governance and culture. Accordingly, I employ the rhetorical question, Is Facebook the Internet? to demonstrate the ways in which commitments to open Internet governance, expressed in both the cultural and regulatory realms, run counter to the more proprietary ideals of the transnational tech community.

First Page

1093

Last Page

1112

Publication Date

11-1-2020

DOI

10.1017/lsi.2020.5

Department

College of Law

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