Introduction
With the exception of Cuba, systematic technical
filtering of the Internet has yet to take hold in Latin
America. The regulation of Internet content
addresses largely the same concerns and strategies seen in North America and Europe, focusing
on combating the spread of child pornography
and restricting children’s access to age-inappropriate material. As Internet usage in Latin
America increases, so have defamation, hate
speech, copyright, and privacy issues.
The judiciary in Latin America has played an
important role in shaping and tempering filtering
activity, a development common to North
America and Europe. At the same time, there has
been a wide range of legal and practical
responses to regulating Internet activity. Latin
American countries have relied primarily upon
existing law to craft remedies to these challenges, though a growing number of Internetspecific laws have been debated and implemented in recent years. These issues have been
addressed primarily through the application of
cease and desist orders in conjunction with
requests to have materials removed from search
engine results.
Though most Latin American countries have
ratified the American Convention on Human
Rights, 1 a regional treaty that guarantees the
freedom of expression, speech continues to be
threatened by government authorities, drug cartels, and others. In particular, journalists have
long been targets of a range of attempts to
obstruct or limit speech, from government threats
to withhold publication licenses to outright intimidation and physical violence. In 2006 and 2007
journalists in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela were
threatened, physically attacked, murdered, or
simply disappeared. 2 For journalists working in
Latin America, death threats were commonplace.
In 2006 Mexico surpassed Colombia as Latin
America’s deadliest country for journalists (second only to Iraq globally), while Cuba has the
world’s second-biggest prison for journalists. 3
The level of openness of the media environment in Latin America is reputed to be subject to
Internet Filtering in
Internet Filtering in
Latin America
With the exception of Cuba, systematic technical
filtering of the Internet has yet to take hold in Latin
America. The regulation of Internet content
addresses largely the same concerns and strategies seen in North America and Europe, focusing
on combating the spread of child pornography
and restricting children’s access to age-inappropriate material. As Internet usage in Latin
America increases, so have defamation, hate
speech, copyright, and privacy issues.
The judiciary in Latin America has played an
important role in shaping and tempering filtering
activity, a development common to North
America and Europe. At the same time, there has
been a wide range of legal and practical
responses to regulating Internet activity. Latin
American countries have relied primarily upon
existing law to craft remedies to these challenges, though a growing number of Internetspecific laws have been debated and implemented in recent years. These issues have been
addressed primarily through the application of
cease and desist orders in conjunction with
requests to have materials removed from search
engine results.
Though most Latin American countries have
ratified the American Convention on Human
Rights, 1 a regional treaty that guarantees the
freedom of expression, speech continues to be
threatened by government authorities, drug cartels, and others. In particular, journalists have
long been targets of a range of attempts to
obstruct or limit speech, from government threats
to withhold publication licenses to outright intimidation and physical violence. In 2006 and 2007
journalists in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela were
threatened, physically attacked, murdered, or
simply disappeared. 2 For journalists working in
Latin America, death threats were commonplace.
In 2006 Mexico surpassed Colombia as Latin
America’s deadliest country for journalists (second only to Iraq globally), while Cuba has the
world’s second-biggest prison for journalists. 3
The level of openness of the media environment in Latin America is reputed to be subject to
Internet Filtering in
Internet Filtering in
Latin America