Disrupting the disruptive: making sense of app blocking in Brazil

Jacqueline De Souza Abreu

doi:10.14763/2018.3.928

Abstract

Disrupting the disruptive: making sense of app blocking in Brazil

Highlights

INTRODUCTIONThis research focused on a particular kind of blocking measure that has been experienced in Brazil
There will be no nation that has no speech that it wishes to regulate on the Internet
Upon review of episodes of internet blocking of social media in Brazil, it argues that the blocking orders issued by Brazilian judges can be connected with a scenario of “regulatory disruption”, that is, a context of regulatory frameworks unfit to deal with innovative internet applications which expands the role of the judiciary in resolving legal disputes

Summary

INTRODUCTION

This research focused on a particular kind of blocking measure that has been experienced in Brazil It looked at eight publicly known cases in which Brazilian judges ordered either a temporary or a permanent blockage of entire social media platforms, to be executed either by internet connection providers or by app store administrators, which functioned as “points of control” (Goldsmith & Wu, 2006, viii; Zittrain, 2002; DeNardis, 2012; Hall, 2016). Criticism of these blocking orders and their impact on infrastructure, economy, and human rights may still be in order, even if not addressed here

October 2016

CONCLUSION