For 30 years we dreamed of a free internet in Latin America, but reality has challenged us with mass surveillance, corporate monopolies, and authoritarianism. The current "techlash" is justified against those who trade with our data. It's time to rethink the internet. 🧵 1/5
In a workshop with the support of @wikimediafoundation, joined by EFF, CELE, and other organizations, and activists from the region, we discussed how to move from merely resisting setbacks to start proposing a "digital utopia." The goal is to reclaim the internet as a real public good. 2/5
This means politicizing the debate. Technical solutions are not enough; we must question who concentrates power. We need alliances between social movements, journalists, and technology sector workers, among others, to once and for all confront platform capture. 3/5
At the meeting, we identified 6 pillars for open, people-centered technology:
1️⃣ Democracy and participation.
2️⃣ Decolonization and diversity.
3️⃣ Autonomy and tech appropriation.
4️⃣ Territoriality, collectivity, and community
5️⃣ Access and equity.
6️⃣ Economic justice and power decentralization. 4/5
Democracy robs freedom of choice from minorities and from individuals.
The tyranny of democracy is the biggest oppressor of all time.
Unalienable rights and individual free agency are the true liberators.
Unalienable rights are rights that cannot be taken from you, not even by a 100% majority rule. Nobody has authority over unalienable rights. Definitely not governments and not law agencies.
We hold those truths to be self evident.
