“Don't Fear the Internet”: Chile's Voto Ciudadano initiative

Note: Article [es] by Derechos Digitales originally published in Spanish, translated by Silvia Viñas.

“Don’t Fear the Internet” [es] is an initiative that seeks to highlight the importance of online freedom of expression not only through issues in our country, Chile, but also through specific experiences.

This latest example looks at the Voto Ciudadano [es] (“Citizen Vote”) project, an online citizen initiative that seeks to position itself as an unprecedented platform for citizen participation. This project responds to the current political system, where opportunities for participation are limited, by leveraging the full potential of the Internet to make citizen voices heard.

Could this initiative take shape using a communications medium that does not guarantee protections (such as data privacy) for the free expression of its users? Voto Ciudadano aims to work as a defender of these protections because without them, freedom of expression on the Internet simply would not exist. They do not fear the Internet; on the contrary, by using it they defend the medium and the human rights it seeks to support.

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