In a small room of no more than 10 square metres, eight activists for the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ people from Brazil, Mexico and Taiwan gathered for the launch of the short documentary KOOL, directed by Rub(én) Solís Mecalco and the result of a collective effort by the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory Múuch' Xíimbal. It was in this tiny available space we held this unscheduled meeting at RightsCon 2025, one of the world's most significant digital rights events, which this year brought together more than 3,000 people in Taipei.
The short film is narrated around the milpa, a space where the population plants corn, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, manioc, plantains, various types of pumpkins, watermelons, melons, chili peppers, and, to make music, the sonajas. The milpa is likened by a Mayan person from the Yucatan Peninsula to the heart "because we depend on it to eat and survive." Another Indigenous person defines it as a "sacred space" because if there is a milpa, the people produce their own food and have "rest from adversity," "freedom," "life," “thought,” "health;" and where they can hold their celebrations thanks to the creators who allow the rain to fall and the milpas to thrive. In the short film, the communities around the milpa come together in resistance to defend a territory that is being threatened by deforestation for cattle production, mega real estate developments, and mega solar and wind energy projects.
The experience of resistance by the Mayan peoples of Mexico was a significant outcome of our participation in this year's RightsCon, a participation guided by the reflection on the centrality of digital technologies in debates on socio-environmental justice. In what ways are digital technologies intertwined in the processes that threaten territories, the lives of traditional peoples, and the very planet we inhabit? This is the more general question concerning the project Resistance and Resilience: Collaborative Responses to Online Attacks against Environmental Defenders, which Intervozes brought to RightsCon at a roundtable discussion organised with Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI).
The project, conceived by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Intervozes – Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social, IPRI, the Ogiek Peoples' Development Program, and the Manila Observatory through the KLIMA Centre, with the support of the International Development Research Centre, conducts research into technology-facilitated violence faced by traditional and Indigenous communities in Brazil, Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines. It also seeks to build a network to take action to change this scenario.
Traditional and Indigenous communities in these countries face a very similar situation: they are besieged by socio-environmental conflicts. They suffer, as a whole, threats from miners, loggers, agribusinesses, mega companies linked to renewable energy – especially wind power – and criminal organisations linked to drug trafficking. The state and big tech companies often work hand in hand with some of these agents to advance the agro-mineral frontier and resultant deforestation.
Reflecting on our methodologies: Impacted communities at the centre
In each of these above-mentioned countries, the project is being carried out in collaboration with traditional and Indigenous communities, adopting a participatory research methodology where they are participants, not the objects, of the research. This approach reveals, firstly, that concepts such as technologies, digital rights and technology-facilitated violence not only have the definitions established in international forums and organisations but also take on other meanings when viewed from the perspective of traditional territories. Secondly, solutions to the problems caused by digital technologies cannot be limited to a debate between "experts" but must bring the impacted communities to the centre.
Offline and online violence are interconnected. The virtual environment reflects the violence inherent in the social, political and economic dynamics of each context. Disinformation and hate speech, for example, don't just threaten individuals who are environmental defenders but often target an entire community or the collectivity of traditional peoples, seeking to justify capitalist projects that advance on territories, frequently using a "green" discourse supported by states. What we have seen happening time and time again is the updating of the colonial project.
With mining, agribusiness, and "green" energy, communities have also experienced the advance of the internet into their territories without prior consultation. In Brazil, for example, connectivity has reached the Amazon territories not through public policies but mainly through low-orbit satellites from Starlink, a project led by SpaceX and headed by Elon Musk, one of the leaders of the global far right.
Orbit satellites in the Amazon region
Starlink's arrival in the Amazon has economic, environmental, social and cultural impacts. On the economic front, the autonomy of territories and the ability to develop technologies that serve their purposes are threatened by dependence on the digital monopolies of big global corporations. Additionally, individuals and families are increasingly falling into debt due to the proliferation of online betting sites.
On the environmental front, in addition to big tech’s interest in the minerals and water that exist in traditional territories to fuel their profits, Starlink's satellites have been used for criminal activities in the region, especially by miners who invade Indigenous lands. The internet thus supports the illegal activities of gold miners on the one hand, and encourages violence and threats against Indigenous peoples on the other.
On a socio-cultural level, there are concerns about disruptive changes in traditional ways of life. Anthropologist Rafael Damasceno, a researcher at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro’s National Museum, has been studying the changes in Indigenous cosmologies following the entry of low-orbit satellites into the Amazon region. The satellites, with their star-like bright spots, alter the sky, a crucial element for these cultures. They, therefore, interfere with long-held Indigenous worldviews. Additionally, there are reports that the sudden arrival of the internet interfering with relationships between people, especially among those from different generations.
Resisting colonialism in its new forms
The initial observations of the research prompt us to reconsider our approach to technology-facilitated violence. In a scenario where it is difficult to access technologies or where access is conditioned by big tech, where digital security is not just about the individual use of cell phones and computers but their collective use, and where territories such as the milpas of the Maya and the Indigenous territories of the Amazon are being threatened, it is not enough to establish regulations to reduce online violence: we need to imagine new ways to build technologies.
For centuries, Indigenous peoples and traditional communities have been resisting colonial enterprises, confronting companies and governments and their mega development projects. It is with this ancestral knowledge that we must engage in conversation if we are to invent alternative ways of life in the ruins of capitalism.
The conversation about building these new technological imaginaries within traditional communities will continue during the annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers, which will take place from 15 to 18 October 2025 in Niterói, Brazil.
Olívia Bandeira, Camila Nobrega and Gyssele Mendes are members of Intervozes – Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social.
Olívia Bandeira participation in this year's RightsCon was supported by the APC Member Engagement and Travel Fund (METF).