CONCENTRATION, DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM
This document summarizes a research which main aim was to identify if, as it happens in the traditional media system in Latin America, in the digital ecosystem there was also concentration as well as companies with dominant position, and which was its impact on freedom of expression and human rights. In this regard, we asked ourselves if the existence of the Internet meant that the principles of diversity and pluralism were still meaningful -as principles and as problems, eventually- in the freedom of expression agendas of the region.
OBSERVACOM developed a series of actions to find evidence of these situations and their effects on the exercise of rights, trying to identify emergent issues, opportunities and challenges from a public interest perspective. These included interviews with the main players of the sector (telecom players as well as Internet companies), an intense intervention in international forums and working meetings to gather inputs for the report as well as to strengthen the bond with relevant players who have vast experience in the field of digital rights.
The scenario discovered shows the consolidation of economic and political power of few transnational corporations in important sectors of the digital economy and the presence of new challenges for social actors concerned about the protection and promotion of freedom of expression on the Internet.