Although there have been significant civil rights gains made in recent decades, the United States... more Although there have been significant civil rights gains made in recent decades, the United States is now experiencing a resurgence of many of the societal ills that have plagued the country for decades. From an insurrection that was seemingly inspired by white supremacist ideology to ongoing examples of police brutality against Black people, anti-Asian violence, anti-LGBTQ violence, and recurring islamophobia, the country sits at an apparent crossroads. There is an urgent need to advance a civil rights agenda that addresses the impact of these societal ills on the affected communities. At the same time, however, we are confronting these ills during a point in history that urges us to think both within and beyond our national borders and boundaries. For many citizens across the globe, similar societal ills exist and are coupled with the challenges presented by our warming planet. Moreover, since the spring of 2020, these dilemmas have been embedded within the throes of an ostensibly ...
This article explores the ideals of open Internet governance in Brazil. I examine Brazil’s Intern... more 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.
8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, November 29—After a jetlagged night, I wake in the American Anthropo... more 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, November 29—After a jetlagged night, I wake in the American Anthropological Association conference hotel to a media flurry about President Donald Trump’s sharing of anti-Muslim videos from a British far-right group. It is my first time in the US since Trump’s inauguration—it feels strikingly different and, yet somehow, the same. His garrulous talking head appears everywhere, the media caught in the stranglehold of reporting on his every move. I flick through news channels to escape him. It is impossible.
Author(s): Omari, Jeffrey | Advisor(s): Brenneis, Donald; Moodie, Megan | Abstract: This disserta... more Author(s): Omari, Jeffrey | Advisor(s): Brenneis, Donald; Moodie, Megan | Abstract: This dissertation employs 18 months of ethnographic research (i.e., experienced-based social, cultural, and legal inquiry) to explore Brazil’s new Internet Bill of Rights, the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), and its impact on the poor and working class populations of Rio de Janeiro. Through its call for openness, promotion of Internet access as a civil right, and protection of net neutrality, the MCI seeks to advance democratic Internet governance in Brazil, a country known for its great social and economic inequality. Brazil has a population of approximately 210 million people and, as of 2016, roughly 95 million Brazilians lacked access to the Internet. This fact is relevant because Article 4 of the MCI promotes “the right of Internet access to all.” By enacting the MCI, the Brazilian government has seemingly envisioned universal Internet access as a core feature of their attempt to overcome decades ...
This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Intern... more This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.
This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Intern... more This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.
This article explores the ideals of open Internet governance in Brazil. I examine Brazil's Intern... more 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.
PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2018
This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Intern... more This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.
Although there have been significant civil rights gains made in recent decades, the United States... more Although there have been significant civil rights gains made in recent decades, the United States is now experiencing a resurgence of many of the societal ills that have plagued the country for decades. From an insurrection that was seemingly inspired by white supremacist ideology to ongoing examples of police brutality against Black people, anti-Asian violence, anti-LGBTQ violence, and recurring islamophobia, the country sits at an apparent crossroads. There is an urgent need to advance a civil rights agenda that addresses the impact of these societal ills on the affected communities. At the same time, however, we are confronting these ills during a point in history that urges us to think both within and beyond our national borders and boundaries. For many citizens across the globe, similar societal ills exist and are coupled with the challenges presented by our warming planet. Moreover, since the spring of 2020, these dilemmas have been embedded within the throes of an ostensibly ...
This article explores the ideals of open Internet governance in Brazil. I examine Brazil’s Intern... more 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.
8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, November 29—After a jetlagged night, I wake in the American Anthropo... more 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, November 29—After a jetlagged night, I wake in the American Anthropological Association conference hotel to a media flurry about President Donald Trump’s sharing of anti-Muslim videos from a British far-right group. It is my first time in the US since Trump’s inauguration—it feels strikingly different and, yet somehow, the same. His garrulous talking head appears everywhere, the media caught in the stranglehold of reporting on his every move. I flick through news channels to escape him. It is impossible.
Author(s): Omari, Jeffrey | Advisor(s): Brenneis, Donald; Moodie, Megan | Abstract: This disserta... more Author(s): Omari, Jeffrey | Advisor(s): Brenneis, Donald; Moodie, Megan | Abstract: This dissertation employs 18 months of ethnographic research (i.e., experienced-based social, cultural, and legal inquiry) to explore Brazil’s new Internet Bill of Rights, the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), and its impact on the poor and working class populations of Rio de Janeiro. Through its call for openness, promotion of Internet access as a civil right, and protection of net neutrality, the MCI seeks to advance democratic Internet governance in Brazil, a country known for its great social and economic inequality. Brazil has a population of approximately 210 million people and, as of 2016, roughly 95 million Brazilians lacked access to the Internet. This fact is relevant because Article 4 of the MCI promotes “the right of Internet access to all.” By enacting the MCI, the Brazilian government has seemingly envisioned universal Internet access as a core feature of their attempt to overcome decades ...
This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Intern... more This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.
This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Intern... more This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.
This article explores the ideals of open Internet governance in Brazil. I examine Brazil's Intern... more 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.
PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2018
This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Intern... more This article examines how new modes of Internet governance and policies intended to expand Internet inclusion unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI), an “Internet Bill of Rights” that promotes collaborative, democratic digital governance and regards Internet access as a requisite for civil rights. Rio’s favelas are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the Internet access policies live. Yet, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of favela residents, which is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader socio-political realities and risks. Because these risks index larger disjunctions in contemporary Brazilian democracy, I propose that violence and informal governance in urban favelas creates a corresponding disjunction in the MCI’s pledge of Internet access as a civil right.
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