Digital Freedom: From the Disconfiguration of the Analog World to (Dis)Substantial Digital Inclusion (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Based on statistical data about digital inclusion in Brazil and supported by bibliographic references, this quantitative and qualitative research aims to illustrate the current state of the art. It seeks to provide foundational knowledge to later exemplify the model that has been clumsily applied in the migration of basic public services from analog to digital formats and how this situation has increased the abstraction of the State, particularly in the eyes of the most vulnerable populations—completely disregarding fundamental rights. The article argues that, to the clear detriment of the digitally underprivileged, and through an informal system of geographical and digital castes, there is an entrenchment in the analog world, which itself is in a state of fragmentation. As a result, basic services—starting with access to justice and extending to other essential public services—are being distorted. Finally, the article addresses several barriers to digital inclusion, such as e-crime and the challenges of linguistic interpretation. In the current context, debates about Digital Constitutionalism—based on abstract concepts—are intensifying, seeking parameters for a new constitutional architecture in the digital age. However, the text concludes that it is necessary to propose a rescue of constitutional foundations, through a topographical engineering approach, particularly from the perspective of the global south—the world's technological periphery. Establishing digital inclusion, substantially considered, as an urgent public policy is crucial to preventing a dangerous trajectory toward "enslavement" 4.0.