Tech roundup: Brazil’s role in the survival of a free internet

Welcome to our Tech Roundup, where we bring you Brazil’s biggest stories on technology and innovation. This week: Brazil could ensure the maintenance of a free and open internet due to its global influence over the future of internet governance.

The survival of internet freedoms could be in the hands of ‘swing states’ like Brazil

Global internet freedoms have worsened for 12 consecutive years. China continues to be the world’s worst environment for open and free internet, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to existing threats. These are some of the key findings of the 2022 Freedom on the Net report, by U.S.-based NGO Freedom House.

In this year’s edition, however, the document puts Brazil in the spotlight, as a country that could have a decisive role not only in improving the current internet scenario but also in ensuring its survival.

What they say. The report calls countries such as Brazil, India, and Nigeria “swing states” on which freedom of the internet hinges, due to their potential regional or global influence over the future of internet governance. 

• “Progress in these countries could ensure the survival of a free and open internet, or they could join authoritarian powers in promoting the more closed model of cyber sovereignty,” the NGO stated.

State of play. As is the case of many other nations rated as swing states, Brazil continues to be classified as a country with a “partly free” internet, tied with the Philippines for 21st place in...