The link between civic struggles, their movements and the activism around the world makes use of the old and the newest forms of communication, that connect networks and streets in different manifestations. In 2011, rebellions with deep roots, associated with systemic crises and the channels of interactive real-time communication, showed their power of mobilization in the Middle East and North Africa, in the protests of Chilean students, in the occupations of Wall Street, in the camps of indignants in Spain, in the anti-austerity demonstrations in Greece, among many other events around the world. The digital tools allowed the real-time exchange between these various movements, multiplying information and converging struggles in the Internet.
However, the network is an environment in dispute. If on the one hand it enables distributed communication between different actors in the actions of resistance and creativity, it also serves the growing and massive surveillance promoted by governments and technological enterprises.
The interest in the restriction of network access and of free information transmission through arbitrary actions of authoritarian regimes or of enterprises that use the control of the Internet data as a business, they are already expressed in projects of global impact like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), PIPA (PROTECT IP Act), ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), and other already approved national initiatives – like the Law SINDE, in Spain, which comes into force in March – and the one which is going through the procedure, like “PL of Azeredo” in Brazil.
These are serious assaults on freedom and sharing on the Internet, that seek for the judicial protection to block the links of connection and to repress Internet users. In practice, based on these laws, any use of data that is against the interests of the industry’s copyright or the corporative interests in all its fields could result already in the disconnection from backbones (the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected networks and core routers on the Internet).
At the other end of the control of the Internet as a business, there are the corporate social networks. At the same time as they promote facilities and foster a new culture of interaction and communication, these companies violate basic human rights to privacy and freedom of their users, trading personal information and boycotting “undesirable” content – Google, Twitter and Facebook are examples of such practices.
Another world is possible and for it to exists, the human right to free communication and universal access to knowledge are non-negotiable principles associated with any fight for fairer societies.
In January 2012, during meetings held in the context of the Forum of Free Media and the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, one more step was made towards the dialogue between various network initiatives interested in developing common technological, political, ethical and philosophical protocols, capable of making them parts of larger networks engendered by contemporary social resistance.
If the free networks share calls and knowledges to improve the conditions of life on the planet, the dialogue between the networks is a part of the effort to speak beyond them, to open up to share experiences and possibilities of organization that occur inside and outside of technological connections and which always translate human connections.
Some enthusiastic proposals have already entered the debate – such as Noosfero, N-1, Diaspora, Sneer, Coredem, Phyrtual, Agora Delibera, Kune, Vote, TheGlobalSquare, among software, concepts and experiences in construction in the field of resources and technological possibilities in dialogue with other movements and activism of civil society.
This dialogue is inserted in the process of the construction of II World Forum of Free Media and integrated in the agenda of the People’s Summit of Rio +20 for Social and Environmental Justice, the parallel event of the civil society to the Conference of the United Nations on Sustainable Development, which will take place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.
The debate is opened on the possible interconnections between non-corporate social networks, based on free software and free culture, and placed at the service of people, of the social movements and global activism. Contribute – access.
More information
http://medias-libres.rio20.net
WWW.forumdemidialivre.org
WWW.freemediaforum.org