Inadequacies of legal discourse in social and online activism: exploring reason and emotion on internet governance

• Author: Fabrício B Pasquot Polido - Lucas Costa dos Anjos
• Position: Federal University of Minas Gerais ? UFMG - Federal University of Minas Gerais ? UFMG
• Pages: 411-418

Revista inteRnacional de Pensamiento Político - i ÉPoca - vol. 10 - 2015 - [411-418] - issn 1885-589X

411

INADEQUACIES OF LEGAL DISCOURSE

IN SOCIAL AND ONLINE ACTIVISM:

EXPLORING REASON AND EMOTION ON

INTERNET GOVERNANCE

1

Fabrício B. Pasquot Polido

Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG.

fpolido@ufmg.br

Lucas Costa dos Anjos

Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG.

lucascostaanjos@gmail.com

Recibido: octubre de 2015

Aceptado: noviembre de 2015

Abstract: The paper analyzes the relationship between law, reason and emo-

tion in the light of recent changes in the eld of social and online activism,

particularly with regard to social interactions within digital networks. With

the consolidation of the Internet, freedom of expression gave rise to several

social phenomena throughout the world, from the Arab Spring uprisings in

Africa and in the Middle East, to Wall Street protesters occupying parks in

New York City. Internet tools and social platforms have been enabling an

array of forms of social mobilization. Under contemporary law, digital inte-

ractions decreased the distance between users and information, allowing

citizens to better claim rights, organize protests, express political views and

identify peers with similar interests online. However, it also hampered the

establishment of traditional face-to-face social relations, raising the aware-

ness of the importance of transparency, compliance and information me-

chanisms related to the origin of online posts and online proles. In many

jurisdictions, legal mechanisms have been put into force to make more

stringent liability rules, condemn users, take down webpages and remove

1. This article was submitted to the XXVII World Congress of the International Association for the

Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy – IVR, held at Georgetown Law School in July 2015, and

consolidates some of the outcomes of the research project “State and Globalization at the Frontiers

of Labour and Technologies”, carried out by the authors at the Graduate Research Programm in Law

of Federal University of Minas Gerais – UFMG. For the support to the development of the project,

the authors are grateful to UFMG Vice-Dean Ofce for Research (PRPQ), within the framework of

the Institutional Funding Program to Junior Scholars of UFMG (Call n. 01/2013), and the Funding

Agency of State of Minas Gerais – FAPEMIG. The authors also thank Rafael Rodriguez Prietro,

Gianluigi Fioriglio and Fernando Martinez Cabezudo, for the critical inputs to the substantive discus-

sion in the 2015 IVR Special Workshop “From Net neutrality to Net protability? Law, Reason and

Emotion in Internet.