Paper short abstract:

This paper uses 18 months of ethnographic research to examine how Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion are vital contemporary efforts to redefine the relationship between the Brazilian state and Rio de Janeiro’s urban poor neighborhoods.

Paper long abstract:

This paper uses 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork to examine how Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion are vital contemporary efforts to redefine the relationship between the Brazilian state and Rio de Janeiro's urban poor neighborhoods. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet, an "Internet Bill of Rights" that seeks to bring democratic principles to the control and use of the Internet in Brazil. This law, which establishes rules on net neutrality, online privacy, data retention, and intermediary liability, also regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. The Marco Civil thus positions Brazil as a pioneer in Internet governance among developing nations. At the same time, the city of Rio de Janeiro is forcibly "pacifying" certain favelas to remove violent drug gangs, introduce a more normative legal order, and increase the state's reach into these communities through the promotion digital inclusion schemes. While recent scholarship concerning favelas demonstrates that structural violence and digital inclusion go hand in hand (Scott 2016), the rapid emergence of Rio's smart city paradigm, which seeks to mitigate urban inequalities, may actually exacerbate long-standing gaps between the rich and poor (Gaffney and Robertson 2016). As a result, I argue that the Marco Civil's goal of promoting civil rights through Internet inclusion is merely aspirational, stunted by the very policies that attempt to further its democratic objectives.