Internet Society Brazil Chapter

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General Information
Type:	ALS
Country:	Brazil
Region:	LAC
Website:	https://www.isoc.org.br/
Email:	comunicacao@isoc.org.br

People
Flávio Rech Wagner; Raquel Fortes Gatto; Pedro de Perdigão Lana; André Lucas Fernandes; Giovanna Michelato Almada and Thobias Prado Moura

ISOC Brazil is the Brazilian chapter of the Internet Society, a global non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring an open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet for everyone. With over 1000 active members across the country, ISOC Brazil represents a diverse community, including:

• Technical Community: Involved in the technological development and operation of the Internet.
• Business Community: Internet service providers, media companies, application developers, and other private sector actors involved in Internet infrastructure and content.
• Academic Community: Researchers from various fields, such as Law, Social Sciences, Communication, and Computer Science, who study the development, use, and impact of the Internet.
• Civil Society: Non-governmental organizations, activists, digital rights advocates, and individuals engaged in promoting meaningful connectivity, cybersecurity, digital sovereignty, and particularly, the Internet Way of Networking.

Activities

ISOC Brazil promotes and debates the principles of the Internet Society within the Brazilian context, translating its actions and positions to society and, at the same time, channeling Brazilian perspectives to the international organization. In addition to individual members, ISOC Brazil also welcomes "organizational members" – companies, associations, research institutions, etc. – who contribute financially and actively participate in the construction of ISOC's actions and positions, both nationally and internationally.

Working Groups

ISOC Brazil is organized into Working Groups (WGs) to deepen the study and action on specific Internet-related topics. Some of the active WGs are:

• WG on Intermediary Liability: Analyzes the Brazilian model of intermediary liability on the Internet, focusing on the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet) and issues such as online freedom of expression and platform regulation. The WG produced the "Decalogue of Recommendations on the Brazilian Model of Intermediary Liability".
• WG on Digital Sovereignty: In partnership with CEPI-FGV, the WG promotes critical analyses of the concept of digital sovereignty in the Brazilian context, considering its implications in various areas.
• WG - Encryption: In partnership with IP.rec, the WG seeks to strengthen ISOC Brazil's actions on encryption, focusing on topics such as children's and adolescents' rights, backdoors, and encryption and gender, in addition to working with the Alliance for Encryption in Latin America and the Caribbean (AC-LAC) and the Global Encryption Coalition.
• WG on Meaningful Connectivity: The WG is dedicated to promoting the debate on meaningful connectivity and community networks, seeking to qualify universal Internet access in Brazil and contribute to the construction of more effective public policies.

Internet Impact Briefs and Project Production

ISOC Brazil develops projects and publishes Internet Impact Briefs (IIBs) to analyze the impact of policies and technologies on the Internet and promote informed public debate. Among the main projects developed in recent years, the following stand out:

• Developing a network of communities in the northern region of Brazil: (2018-2020) The project, developed in partnership with the Nupef Institute, contributed to the growth and improvement of community network policies and practices in Brazilian rural areas to empower those who are marginalized. A new network was developed in the state of Maranhão, and a communication plan was developed for the organizations and movements of the quebradeiras de babaçu. Thus, it expanded the reach of community networks with broadband internet, monitored legislative and regulatory issues, and consequently documented the work by disseminating the experiences through videos, photos, and texts.
• Digital sovereignty: for what and for whom? Conceptual and political analysis of the concept from the Brazilian context: Developed in partnership with CEPI-FGV (2022-2024), the project seeks to qualify the debate on digital sovereignty in Brazil.
• Digital Inclusion in Brazilian Municipalities: Advocacy for Bill 1938/22: In partnership with IBEBrasil (2024), the project aims to promote digital inclusion through advocacy actions.
• The Impacts of Bill 2630/22 on digital platforms: The project (2024) sought to analyze the impacts of Bill 2630/2020 on the critical properties of the Internet through an Internet Impact Brief.
• Research Project on the remuneration of journalism by digital platforms: (2024) The project investigates proposals for the remuneration of journalism by digital platforms and their impacts on the Internet.
• Internet Toll: (2023-2024) In partnership with ITS Rio, the project analyzes and debates the impacts of the "cost-sharing"/Networking Sender Pays proposal for the Internet.

In addition, the Chapter also produces, based on the Internet Impact Briefs (IIB) Methodology, the evaluation of the impact of legislative proposals and other initiatives on the Internet ecosystem. In this Internet Impact Assessment Methodology, we first analyze the impacts of regulatory change on critical properties of the Internet, that is, on what the Internet needs to exist. This includes: (i) an accessible infrastructure with a common protocol that is open and has low barriers to entry; (ii) an open architecture of interoperable and reusable building blocks, based on voluntarily adopted open standards development processes by a community of users; (iii) decentralized management and a single distributed routing system that is scalable and agile; (iv) common global identifiers that are unambiguous and universal; and (v) a technologically neutral and general-purpose network that is simple and adaptable.

In a second step, the Internet Impact Assessment Methodology also proposes the analysis of the impacts of regulatory change on enablers that allow the goals of an open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet to be achieved.

In this way, the Chapter's mission is to contribute to the promotion of an open, secure, globally connected, and trustworthy Internet.

Internet Society