This panel will discuss how digitisation and mass surveillance will affect our human rights and democracy.

While the regulation of information disorders, false information, harassment and hate speech constitutes an important trend all over the world, the trend in Latin American countries is to regulate online content using these as excuses for the restriction of dissent. This might affect democratic spaces in a myriad of ways, particularly in contexts where democracy is weak or relatively new, and this should be our main concern when considering regulations that allow restrictions to online content.

Digital rights are human rights in a digital environment.

Journalism has always found its way to counter anti-democratic forces. Fake news should not be the exception. Acting upon these will demand media not shy to engage and the awareness that digital may not be the (only) place to do our job.

Surveillance has a public purpose and goes beyond mere observation. It entails a purpose and implies intervention (a.o. to protect, to manipulate). Differentiation is important. If surveillance is also applied into contexts exempt of public interest, if every documentation is a form of surveillance, it ends meaning everything and nothing. Not every privacy breach is a form of surveillance. What is surveillance in time of big data? How do we differentiate it from observation and documentation?