{"id":20426,"date":"2015-03-10T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=20426"},"modified":"2018-02-07T11:12:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T14:12:44","slug":"democracy-through-technology-internet-access-in-rios-favelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=20426","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Through Technology: Internet Access in Rio’s Favelas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This article introduces a series<\/a>\u00a0by guest researcher Jeffrey Omari,* on ICTs in\u00a0Rio’s favelas.<\/em><\/p>\n

A resident of a North Zone<\/a> favela told a story of how his landlord gave\u00a0him notice to vacate his apartment and demanded\u00a0he move out quickly. \u00a0The resident had other housing options in the favela and was not too distraught. He was\u00a0somewhat amused, however, when he mentioned that his landlord had sent him the notice through Facebook. According to him, receiving this type of formal correspondence through informal social networks such as Facebook is increasingly\u00a0common in favelas throughout Rio.<\/p>\n

The Internet has become an indispensable part of life in\u00a0Rio’s favelas as much as it has anywhere else in\u00a0the world. For residents of\u00a0these communities, Internet access and its ability to further a more democratic society are vital for day-to-day living. Accordingly, the availability of the material technologies (namely desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, or LAN houses<\/a>) that facilitate access is essential for a broad range of social, cultural, financial, and political activities that govern life in the favela. The issue of access to technology in these communities is often overshadowed by the myriad concerns regarding the pacification<\/a> initiatives. However, with Brazil recently passing the Marco Civil da Internet<\/a><\/em>\u2014an \u201cInternet Bill of Rights\u201d\u2014issues of Internet\u00a0access in favelas are starting to receive more attention.<\/p>\n

Scholars from the Center for Technology and Society at Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Get\u00falio Vargas Law School originally conceived of the Marco Civil<\/em> in 2009. It was made a constitutional priority by the Brazilian government after Edward Snowden\u2019s disclosures regarding American espionage and was enacted into law in April 2014. The Marco Civil<\/em> establishes rules on net neutrality, online privacy, data retention, and intermediary liability. Net neutrality\u2014the idea that Internet servers handle different types of online traffic equally, without discrimination as to the speed of access (i.e., the way the Internet works now)\u2014is guaranteed in Brazil under the 2014 law. This principle was only adopted in the U.S<\/a>\u00a0in 2015. With regards to online privacy, the Marco Civil<\/em>\u00a0establishes rules in three categories: (1) principles and user\u2019s rights, (2) specifications on data retention, and (3) access to personal data. In an effort to ensure its own online privacy and escape the reach of the NSA spying campaign, Brazil is scheduled to begin construction on underwater fiber optic cables<\/a> that would stretch across the Atlantic from Fortaleza to Portugal. Most importantly, however, for issues regarding technology in the favelas, the Marco Civil<\/em>\u00a0asserts that Internet access is a requisite for civil rights. Thus, in Brazil access to technology\u00a0is fundamental to notions of democracy and civic participation, which inherently accompany civil rights.<\/p>\n

\"Gatos<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea that access to technology is a right is expressed through\u00a0the installation and use of gatos<\/em>. Literally \u201ccats\u201d in Portuguese, in this context the term \u201cgatos<\/em>\u201d is slang for the illegal siphoning\u00a0of electricity, cable TV, or broadband Internet. This siphoning\u00a0occurs through sophisticated wiring systems, which may be installed either by amateurs or commercially. In certain favelas, gatos<\/em> are dropping in use due to police crackdowns<\/a> and the increasing presence of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Although many residents welcome the sight of the subscription-service ISPs in their communities, some favela residents long for the days of gatos<\/em>, which amounted to subsidized service.<\/p>\n

Recent studies have begun to shed more light on these concerns and others around access to technology in favelas.\u00a0Observat\u00f3rio de Favelas<\/a>, for example, published a quantitative study providing statistical data on\u00a0how certain communities (Complexo do Alem\u00e3o, Cidade de Deus, Rocinha, Manguinhos, and Complexo da Penha) in Rio use the Internet. Additionally, David Nemer, a PhD Candidate in Social Informatics at Indiana University, conducted ethnographic fieldwork on use of technology in the favelas of Vit\u00f3ria, Brazil and\u00a0published Favela Digital: The Other Side of Technology<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>in\u00a02013.<\/p>\n

\"ISP<\/a><\/p>\n

Little ethnographic research, however, has been conducted on Internet access as a requisite for democracy. How is the material technology that facilitates social networks acquired or accessed by lower-income citizens? How does access to technology empower or disempower the residents of informal communities? In what ways does access to material technology also provide social currency? And what is the impact of LAN houses\u2014cyber caf\u00e9s used to promote digital inclusion by offering Internet access to favela dwellers? The forthcoming series of articles will provide a glimpse into these concerns in the context of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

*A PhD candidate from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Jeffrey Omari<\/span> studies Internet access and cyber law in Rio de Janeiro.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas This article introduces a series\u00a0by guest researcher Jeffrey Omari,* on ICTs in\u00a0Rio’s favelas. A resident of a North Zone favela told a story of how his landlord gave\u00a0him notice to vacate […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":20579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1268,335,1282,328,1329],"tags":[231,1303,32,504,479,221,25,749,354,637,2644,37,523,193,1616,12,2634,1655,796,128],"writer":[1563],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-favelaculture","8":"category-policies","9":"category-research-analysis","10":"category-understanding-rio","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-city-of-god","13":"tag-communication-rights","14":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","15":"tag-culture","16":"tag-democracy","17":"tag-favela-culture","18":"tag-human-rights","19":"tag-internet","20":"tag-law","21":"tag-manguinhos","22":"tag-marco-civil","23":"tag-north-zone","24":"tag-observatorio-de-favelas","25":"tag-penha","26":"tag-reference","27":"tag-rocinha","28":"tag-series","29":"tag-series-democracy-through-technology","30":"tag-social-media","31":"tag-technology","32":"writer-jeffrey-omari"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=20426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}