New volume maps out risks of digital protest and cyber war in Latin America
[Press Release] 23 April 2016
The Internet is profoundly reshaping the way governments and citizens interact. On the one hand, civilians are using cyberspace to express grievances and pursue progressive forms of political change. At the same time, cyberspace is being leveraged by governments, businesses and criminal gangs to extort, intimidate and even kill. States are struggling to balance the imperatives of public safety and individual privacy online and off. There is a danger that digital freedoms will be strangled in the process.
These tensions are highlighted in a new e-book – Open Empowerment: From Digital Protest to Cyber War – edited by Brazil-based Igarapé Institute and the SecDev Foundation in Canada. The edited volume is currently listed on Amazon and reveals how new actors like Anonymous, YoSoy132, and Blog de Narco have transformed the ways in which citizens interact with their governments and each other. The volume includes contributions from specialists in cyber security, politics and law from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico.
“Internet users are finding their voices online and being digitally empowered. The massive penetration of the Internet and mobile phones in Latin America has tremendous consequences for governance, economics and security”, says Robert Muggah, Research Director of the Igarapé Institute and co-editor of the book with Rafal Rohozinski, CEO of the SecDev Group.
According to Muggah, “the Internet is creating new forms of open empowerment. This entails accelerated political, social and economic agency and networking enabled by the digital revolution. It involves citizen who are legitimately expressing their interests online. It also includes cyber cartels and digital gangs who are colonizing cyberspace for their own ends”.
Contents
Introduction: An era of “open empowerment” in Latin America
Rafal Rohozinski and Robert Muggah
Internet, participación ciudadana y ciberdelito en Argentina
Miguel Sumer Elías and Daniel Monastersky
An emerging power’s approach to cyber-(in)security: assessing Brazilian
threats and responses
Robert Muggah, Misha Glenny and Gustavo Diniz
Colombia’s black web: guerrilla websites, twitter protests and the cybercrime
challenge
Elyssa Pachico and Hannah Stone
Online power and impotence in El Salvador
James Bosworth and Samuel Logan
#DemocracyMX: impacts of cyberspace on Mexican civil society, drug cartels
and government
Jorge Soto and Constanza Gomez Mont
Strategic communications and cyberspace in Mexico’s drug war
Antoine Nouvet and James Farwell
Mapping the digital ecosystem of gangs in the U.S. and Mexico
Julian Way and Robert Muggah
Perspective: studying open empowerment in the age of big data
Rafal Rohozinski and Robert Muggah
Other publications on cyber security by the Igarapé Institute
- Brazil’s Digital Backlash. Robert Muggah and Nathan Thompson.New York Times. 2015.
- Brazil’s digital protests spell trouble on the street.Nathan Thompson. Open Democracy. 2015.
- A Balcanizacao da Internet pode Comecar no Brasil, Robert Muggah and Nathan Thompson. El País.
- Digital Tough Guys: How El Salvador´s Gangs Stay Ahead of Police Online, Robert Muggah. Foreign Affairs.
- O Problema do Cibercrimen no Brasil.Robert Muggah. El País. 2015.
- A Expansão das Gangues Digitais.Robert Muggah. El País. 2015.
- Brazil’s Cyber-Security Problem. Robert Muggah and Nathan Thompson. Foreign Affairs. 2015.
- Cómo hacer frente a la violencia de pandillas en América Latina. Robert Muggah. World Economic Forum . 2015.
- Gangsta’s Paradise: How Brazil´s Gangs (and Police) Use Social Media. Robert Muggah. Americas Quartely. 2015.
- La Creciente Amenaza de las Pandillas Digitales. Robet Muggah. World Economic Forum. 2015.
- The Rising Threat of Organized Crime on Social Media. Robert Muggah. World Economic Forum. 2015.
- Brazil´s Cyber Security Connundrum. Robert Muggah and Misha Glenny. Council on Foreign Relations. 2015.
- Brace for the Quantified Society. Robert Muggah and Rafal Rohozinski.Open Canada.
- Deconstructing Cyber Security in Brazil: Threats and Responses. Gustavo Diniz, Robert Muggah and Misha Glenny. Igarapé Institute. 2014.
- Securitização da cibersegurança no Brasil. Robert Muggah, Misha Glenny and Gustavo Diniz. Cadernos Adenauer. 2014.
- Brasil aposta na militarização da segurança cibernética.Robert Muggah and Gustavo Diniz. Le Monde Diplomatique. 2014.
- Brazil Doubles Down on Cyber Security. Robert Muggah, Misha Glenny and Gustavo Diniz. Open Democracy. 2014.
- The Age of Law Enforcement Surveillance. Robert Muggah. Open Canada. 2014.
- Today´s Digital Witnesses Can Prevent Tomorrow´s War Crimes.Robert Muggah. Open Canada. 2014.
- Cyberspace and Open Empowerment in Latin America. Robert Muggah and Gustavo Diniz. Igarapé Institute and SecDev Foundation. 2013.
- Wired Humanitarianism. Robert Muggah. The Huffington Post. 2013.
- After NSA Scandal, Will Brazil Try to Unravel the Internet.Robert Muggah. The Globe and Mail. 2013.
- Digitally Enhanced Protest. Robert Muggah. Open Canada. 2013.
