Varieties of digital capitalism: platform regulation in Latin America

Faced with global digital transformations, states adopt different approaches to the regulation of the internet. In other contexts, these differences have been described as varieties of capitalism (VoC). Nevertheless, the VoC approach does not directly address the characteristics of digital capitalism. Moreover, it focuses mainly on developed countries, without taking into consideration the Latin-American context in the digital era. Indeed, states in the region face difficult challenges to regulate digital markets dominated by US platforms. In addition, it is necessary to draw some distinctions within the region. Among Latin-American states, it is possible to see substantial differences in the regulatory responses to digitization. The talk will outline an analysis of the digitization in Latin America, paying attention to the common challenges and to the differences among countries within the region. It describes two ideal-typical variants of regulatory models: one aiming primarily at economic insertion in global digital markets, and another focusing on state autonomy in the regulation of digital platforms.

Jean-Marie Chenou is an Associate Professor at the department of Political Science and Global Studies at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, where he has worked since 2016. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and a MA in International Relations from the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). His research focuses on internet governance and the global political economy of the digital age.

The event is part of the Seminar Series “Platform Politics and Policy”.

Researchers from outside the WZB who would like to attend may email the organizer, robert.gorwa [at] wzb.eu, to be put onto the seminar series mailing list.