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<div><b>Beyond Digital Rights: Towards a Fair Information Ecosystem?</b></div><div><i><br></i></div><div><i><a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/beyond-digital-rights-towards-a-fair-information-ecosystem/" target="_blank">Published on Tech Policy Press, February 28 2025</a></i></div><div>by Bruno Bioni, Mariana Rielli & Rafael Zanatta</div><div><br></div><div>
<p>One of the major challenges in the field of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights" rel="noopener" target="_blank">digital rights</a>
is the tendency toward segmentation and hyper-specialization in topics
such as privacy, freedom of expression, net neutrality, data protection,
and the regulation of AI systems.</p><p>While these areas are crucial
and must be defended in the 21st century, we need a more holistic
perspective to address the complex intersection of technology and
society. The relationship between living beings and their environment is
increasingly mediated by digital intermediation and technological
affordances. This shift demands an <a href="https://brunobioni.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Ecology-Bioni.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ecological vision</a> that considers the broader implications of digital transformation and its political economy.</p><p>We are witnessing intense <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20539517241227875?af=R" rel="noopener" target="_blank">datafication</a>,
platformization, and a reconfiguration of power dynamics among
corporations, states, and citizens. Only through a comprehensive
understanding of these shifts in our information ecosystem can we
develop effective strategies for advancing social justice and democracy,
which is increasingly under threat from populism and its tactical
alliances with oligarchs in the tech sector.</p><p>To achieve this, we
must move beyond certain outdated paradigms. The cyber-libertarian
notion of the internet as an ethereal, separate space—distinct from the
material world—is a persistent illusion. In reality, the internet and
digital technologies depend on physical infrastructure, Earth’s
resources, and human labor. It is time to abandon the conceptual
repertoire of the 1990s—expressions such as "cyberspace" and "cloud
computing"—and instead revive the <a href="https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/docs/geneva/official/dop.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">principles</a>
established at the World Summit on the Information Society, which
recognized human dignity and environmental protection as foundational to
a healthier information society.</p><p>Similarly, we must reassess
long-standing beliefs about deregulation and the notion that an
unregulated digital economy fosters innovation, competition, and
dynamism. The legal frameworks designed to support platform economies
and grant them broad immunities have largely failed in their original
objectives. Instead, we see increasing economic concentration,
stagnation in meaningful innovation, and higher barriers to
entry—particularly in AI-driven markets, where access to vast amounts of
data and computing power has created insurmountable advantages for
dominant players.</p><p>The prevailing narratives of “Internet Freedom”
and “individual human rights online” have reached their limits, in a
certain way. This recognition is why, in the digital rights field in
Brazil, we are now focusing on more structural elements and on fostering
a fair information ecosystem.</p>
<p>For the past four years, Brazil has actively debated artificial
intelligence legislation and has recently approved and reviewed its
national AI strategy. Both prioritize people by balancing a rights-based
approach with a risk-based one. This combination inherently
incorporates the environmental impact concerns of how AI—particularly
its intensive water and energy consumption—disproportionately affects
marginalized communities. At the same time, Brazil is geopolitically
well-positioned to tackle these ecological challenges, as it not only
possesses one of the world's largest clean and renewable energy matrices
but is also advancing research and innovation to further expand it.</p><p><a href="https://www.dataprivacybr.org/en/the-artificial-intelligence-legislation-in-brazil-technical-analysis-of-the-text-to-be-voted-on-in-the-federal-senate-plenary/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Brazilian legislative and public policy efforts</a>
are responding to these challenges by placing human dignity, the fight
against inequality, and environmental sustainability at the heart of the
AI governance framework.</p><p>A fair information ecosystem also
requires recognizing and protecting the rights of content creators and
artists in relation to AI-generated works. Creators must be able to
object to the use of their works and receive fair compensation when
their intellectual property is exploited, especially in training
datasets used by monopolistic AI firms to generate synthetic media. This
concern has prompted some of Brazil's most celebrated artists—such as
Milton Nascimento, Marisa Monte, and Caetano Veloso—to sign an <a href="https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/matheus-leitao/artistas-apoiam-pl-que-regulamenta-inteligencia-artificial" rel="noopener" target="_blank">open letter</a>
to the Federal Senate advocating for the inclusion of copyright
protections in AI legislation. Their call underscores the need to uphold
the personality rights of the creative industry in the digital age.</p><p>In collaboration with the Coalizão Direitos na Rede, a coalition of 60 civil society organizations, we are advancing an <a href="https://direitosnarede.org.br/2024/04/09/aprovacao-pl2630-fundamental-para-regular-plataformas-e-defender-democracia-brasileira/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">agenda</a>
for the economic regulation of digital platforms. This agenda seeks to
address issues such as data-driven mergers that stifle competition and
the significant asymmetries between tech giants and smaller,
sector-specific companies operating in areas like education, finance,
and fraud prevention. The Brazilian government is preparing a new piece
of legislation, largely inspired by Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA)
and the Digital Services Act (DSA).</p><p>Additionally, a fair
information ecosystem requires robust mechanisms for public
participation in negotiations over fair data flows and effective redress
for those whose rights have been violated. This is why we advocate for
empowering civil society organizations to initiate <a href="https://cetic.br/media/docs/publicacoes/6/20230727104238/iso-year-xv-n-2-personal-data-protection.pdf" rel="noopener" target="_blank">collective legal actions and provide mechanisms for group-based redress</a>.
Individuals and collectives harmed by automated decision-making systems
must have avenues for seeking compensation and legal redress. Data
protection authorities must coexist with access to justice in courts.</p><p>From a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053951717736335" rel="noopener" target="_blank">data justice perspective</a>,
it is crucial to establish democratic processes that give communities a
say in how their data is used, particularly in initiatives like <a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/digital-public-services-for-whom-participation-and-care-as-prerequisites-for-efficiency/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Digital Public Infrastructure</a>.
This vision moves beyond the traditional model of individual consent
and isolated petitions, recognizing that data justice demands
community-centered deliberation and equitable governance. Communities
that generate data should have a voice in determining how its value is
recognized and managed in the public interest. It is time to shift from
the so-called informational self-determination—primarily
individualistic, based on an abstract view of the data subject as a
rational economic agent—to what we have been calling <a href="https://www.amazon.com.br/Regula%C3%A7%C3%A3o-Prote%C3%A7%C3%A3o-Dados-Pessoais-Accountability-ebook/dp/B0B61QZSR3" rel="noopener" target="_blank">informational co-deliberation</a>. This approach emphasizes a collective effort and, ultimately, <a href="https://www.csisac-community.org/news/42-ministerial-day-1-csisac-participated-in-a-workshop-on-immersive-technologies" rel="noopener" target="_blank">public deliberation</a> between individuals and groups to foster more equitable value distribution and political resistance through data flows.</p><p>In
a globalized world, local struggles are interconnected with
international policymaking. As the Brazilian geographer and intellectual
<a href="https://www.amazon.com.br/Milton-Santos-Pioneer-Critical-Geography/dp/331953825X" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Milton Santos</a>
emphasized, these fights do not occur in isolation. The digital policy
battles currently unfolding in Brazil—such as securing AI legislation
centered on labor and sustainability, enacting economic regulations for
large platforms, and developing digital public infrastructure projects
grounded in data justice—have broader geopolitical implications. These
initiatives can <a href="https://www.dataprivacybr.org/en/g20-engagement-groups-issue-joint-declaration-on-artificial-intelligence/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">contribute to international discussions</a>, including the G20 processes in South Africa and the formulation of global cooperation strategies.</p><p>Adopting
the framework of a fair informational ecosystem might offer an
opportunity for citizens, activists, industry and policymakers to expand
their analytical perspectives, beyond the traditional digital rights
approach of the beginning of the century. At the very least, this is the
approach we have been pursuing in Brazil and in our dialogues with
civil society organizations from the <a href="https://www.dataprivacybr.org/en/documentos/southern-alliance-for-the-global-digital-compact-2/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Global South</a>.</p></div>
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