Explore our resources on digital rights

In recent years, a modest advance began to be observed in the consensus around the need to rebalance global power relations in the field of technology. The concept of “tech sovereignty” has gained prominence in the discourses of both governmental and international authorities. At the same time, new opportunities emerged for fiscal policies aimed at compensating countries for the extraction of their data by a handful of companies. Even though some of these demands remain largely rhetorical (with countries still granting benefits to the same companies for local resource exploitation), the alliance between Big Tech and the far-right U.S. government has devoted all its efforts to pushing them back.

Sustaining a civil society organization dedicated to promoting human rights in Latin America is no easy task. This milestone deserves to be celebrated, even in a global context that seems determined to take away any brief moments of joy. On this date marking the formal founding of Derechos Digitales 20 years ago, we look back at our roots and renew our commitment to continuing the struggle for a fairer, more equitable, and more democratic future.

The recent decision by the Argentine government to place cybersecurity under the control of the State Intelligence Secretariat sets a dangerous precedent for the region. In this column, we examine how this model, rather than protecting rights, reinforces authoritarian dynamics in Latin America. The question that now looms large is: Who watches the watchers?

As we witness the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, not everything is cause for alarm. There are concrete efforts being made to promote an ethical use of AI in journalism.

Eleven years ago, we learned that every email we sent, every chat message, phone call, and document shared in the cloud was accessible to intelligence agencies of the United States and allied countries. This became known after Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) published in some of the world’s most important media outlets. This column will recall some of the key facts of this story and reflect on what has changed since then.

The days following the elections in Venezuela have once again demonstrated the ruling party’s lack of political tolerance. A consecutive series of elections without any progress over the last decade has fueled the current situation in which fear joins the sense of hope and outrage at what seemed to be an opportunity for real change in a country where a complex humanitarian crisis persists, hitting its population without mercy or respite.

Thinking about the future of work, and especially of work mediated by digital platforms, has never been as hopeless as it is today. The promise and threats of automation, the precarization of old forms of work – creative and cultural, for example – and the creation of new forms of digital work in slave-like conditions – all contribute to this scenario.

It is not new that the trade agenda is advancing over the rights agenda. Digital-related aspects have not been exempt from this dynamic, but some recent developments in international geopolitics made the last Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) a critical forum for discussions on the subject. Despite the many expectations surrounding the revision of measures that historically limit the action of States in the area of electronic commerce, the final decision was to maintain the status quo and, thus, to continue perpetuating historical inequalities.