Digital Access amongst the Marginalized: Democracy and Internet Governance in Rio de Janeiro

This article examines how new modes of governance and policies intended to expand Internet access unfold in the marginalized communities of Rio de Janeiro. In April 2014, Brazil enacted the Marco Civil da Internet (Civil Rights Framework of the 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 (informal, historically low-income communities) are territories where many of the intended beneficiaries of the access policies live. However, drug gangs often control favela neighborhoods and censor the digital access of residents; this is just one example of how Internet access in disadvantaged communities is tied to a number of broader sociopolitical 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.