Social Media platforms and civil society in Latin America :a view from the Nonprofit Organizations

Abstract

"In the last decade, Latin American nonprofits have built new means and capacity to participate in the governance of online content. At the same time, nonprofits in the region face significant limitations to serving as meaningful actors in this space. This report describes three types of engagements between nonprofits and social media companies; they include the following: conversations about updates to content moderation rules, discussions about decisions on specific pieces of content, and the Facebook Oversight Board global consultation. The report focuses on three aspects of the engagement between companies and nonprofits that constrain the potential for these interactions to translate into policy development, including: the timing of the engagement, the scope of the consultation, and companies’ internal structure. The final section introduces regional projects that promise further involvement in content governance. This report shows the preliminary findings of a qualitative study consisting of interviews with 23 participants from 17 organizations working in the region. Consequently, it describes the perspectives of the nonprofits working in the space and their views on what limits their role and what reforms could enhance it."