{"id":235,"date":"2020-09-29T13:39:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T13:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmu.mau.se\/nmict202group2\/?p=235"},"modified":"2022-05-11T09:55:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T09:55:12","slug":"ict-and-indigenous-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu.mau.se\/nmict202group2\/2020\/09\/29\/ict-and-indigenous-people\/","title":{"rendered":"ICT4D and Indigenous People"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Welcome! My blog post series will follow the theme of Indigenous Peoples development and social change in relation to information and communication technologies (ICTs), as I perceive it has had an immense impact of this particular marginalised group.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, during the spring of 2020, the importance of new media and communication channels for Indigenous People were undoubtably prominent. Many local organisations from Latin America<\/a> to Asia<\/a> had to work hard to get the message out regarding COVID-19 and prevention measures to Indigenous population in their languages and fill in for the common neglect of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information Communication Mobilisation <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In the winter of 2018\/2019, I spent some time in Ecuador and made some friends in the capital of Quito. In the fall of 2019, I started to see my friends posting snaps and pictures of violent protest on their social media. The Ecuadorian Indigenous coalition, CONAIE<\/a>, which is the largest Indigenous social movement in Latin Americas, were taking on the streets and protesting against the president\u2019s recently announced austerity measures, which in turn was met with brutal response from police and military. Security forces used excessive force against protesters and journalists, including firing teargas canisters directly at individuals and at close range and brutally beating and arbitrarily detaining protesters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I \u201cwitnessed\u201d this unfold from my Instagram account in Stockholm, the scope of the impact social media has had on society really struck me. ICT\u00b4s have had immense importance for the advancement of indigenous political movements in Latin America. In this case in Ecuador, Twitter was the tool for the mobilisation of the Indigenous protesters and WhatsApp, through variety of large threads groups, was key to keep the protestors in communication and citizen informed, as mainstream media was perceived as unreliable and bias. Back in 1994, Indigenous movements in Mexico started to take advantage of the internet to calling wide attention to their oppression caused by national forces, managing to gain global support and international news media momentum, establishing what was to be called to The Zapatista effect<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Chile, a recent study <\/a>shows that ICT and social media serves in favour for the Mapuche people who long have suffered the oppression of state forces in extra juridical killings. A leader of a Mapuche regional confirms: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSocial media played a key role which made this situation very different compared to other extrajudicial killings in the past. Within hours, what happened was all over the national and international news. They couldn\u2019t just cover it up as they used to do. It also allowed us to mobilize thousands of people, and this led to real consequences for those responsible.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n