Online election campaigns, online shopping, working from home, and video conferences with people from all over the world - whether we like it or not, since the start of the pandemic, the internet determines our lives more than ever before, both online and offline. States and international organizations are increasingly confronted with the question of who actually regulates the internet, whether it even can be regulated (and how), and what role companies like Amazon and Facebook play in this.

Our guest for this episode is German Chancellor Fellow Nathalia Sautchuk Patrício, who is doing comparative research about the German and the Brazilian experience with promoting and protecting the open internet through net neutrality and the fight against illegal online content. With her, we talk about the hopes and burdens of net neutrality, which responsibilities internet companies like Facebook should have, and how Brazil can pose as a good example for Germany in terms of internet governance. 

Nathalia has a passion for technology and using it to improve peoples' lives. She has been working in the field of internet governance for 7 years, for the DiploFoundation or LACNIC (Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre), and she has given lectures at institutes including the Universidade Presbeteriana Mackenzie, the Virtual University of State of São Paulo, and the Senac University, among others. She has published extensively on topics related to Internet Governance Initiatives and internet usage mainly in Latin America.

Find Nathalia on Twitter: @nathysautchuk

For feedback or questions we welcome you comments directed at @GCR21 on Twitter under the hashtag #cooperadiopodcast or you can get in touch via e-mail: cooperadio@gcr21.uni-due.de.

Further readings:

Sautchuk-Patricio, Nathalia (2021). Learning From the German Experience of Promoting and Protecting the Open Internet: The Cases of Network Neutrality and the Fight Against Illicit Online Content; In: Quarterly Magazine, July 2021. 

Aguerre, C. and Canabarro, D. (2021). Borders and Boundaries in Internet Governance. Rethinking Scholarship and Policies. In: Quarterly Magazine, July 2021.

Aguerre, C.; Canabarro, D. R.; Callegari, A.; Hurel, L. M.; Patrício, N. S. (2018). Mapping National Internet Governance Initiatives in Latin America. Internet Policy Observatory at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania: April.

Haggart, B.; Tusikov, N. and Scholte, J. A. (eds.) (2021). Power and Authority in Internet Governance. Return of the State? Routledge: London.