Promotion of Digital Rights in Towns and Communities of Oaxaca, Mexico

11/01/2023

Promotion of Digital Rights in Towns and Communities of Oaxaca, Mexico

SURCO (Servicios Universitarios y Redes de Conocimientos en Oaxaca A.C.) implements a project to promote and protect the digital rights of native communities in Mexico and to guarantee access to information in at least four indigenous languages spoken in the state of Oaxaca.

Supported by LACNIC’s FRIDA Program, the initiative promotes the participation of indigenous peoples in digital environments, based on access to information in indigenous languages in the Triqui, Mazateca, Mixe, and Zapotec communities, part of the cultures recognized by the Oaxaca Law of Indigenous Peoples and Communities.

Kiado Cruz, coordinator of the Indigital project; Oliver Frohling, general manager of SURCO; and Alejandra Mendez, creator of the microsite in the language of each of the communities, are responsible for shaping the proposal that attempts to adapt Information Technologies to the needs and culture of the indigenous peoples of the state of Oaxaca located in southern Mexico.

Members of SURCO pointed out that the goal of the project is to enable the political participation of indigenous peoples in digital environments through the promotion and appropriation of digital rights, including the right to decide what is shared or stored in cyberspace.

 What is the main line of the project? What do you wish to accomplish with the initiative?

Our intention is to create an Internet website specializing in access to information in four languages spoken in Oaxaca (Triqui, Mazatec, Mixe, Zapotec). With these four languages we began to work on digital rights, Internet freedom, net neutrality, linguistic justice, and other topics. We started to use Mexico’s National Transparency Platform by INAI, the body that is responsible for guaranteeing the right to access public information in Mexico.

The project included a community training process which focused on three axes: digital rights, access to information, and community data (governance). Workshops were conducted in the four regions of the state of Oaxaca and in the native languages spoken by these communities. The workshops provided not only technical training on digital rights and the use of platforms, but also discussion forums to collect the community’s concerns and ideas about the possibilities, dangers, and forms of governance of community data. In addition, we created the INDIGITAL platform to support and follow up on the community training workshops.

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The final part consisted of a communication campaign that was disseminated in the four languages by means of radio capsules focusing on the three axes mentioned above.

What challenges or needs did the initiative face?

During the course of the project, we were faced with various problems.

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