The conversation drew on Alandar’s new report, “Trends in Technology Regulation 2026,” which maps a changing regulatory environment: AI governance is moving from abstraction to implementation; election integrity is becoming a central concern for digital policy; and debates over data, platforms, and digital infrastructure are increasingly tied to economic competitiveness and democratic resilience.
The discussion featured Veronica Deviá, public affairs & communications lead at Alandar; Natalia Paiva, co-founder of Alandar and senior fellow at the Brazil Program; Ligia Lopes, senior manager at Amazon Web Services; and Lílian Cintra de Melo, former national secretary for digital rights at Brazil’s Ministry of Justice.
Participants emphasized that Brazil’s digital policy debate now extends far beyond content moderation. Increasingly, discussions involve risk classification, transparency obligations, due diligence requirements, safety-by-design approaches, and the institutional capacity needed to enforce regulation effectively. Natalia Paiva argued that the central challenge is not whether Brazil should regulate digital technologies, but whether it can do so in a coherent and strategic way that balances rights protection with long-term development goals. The discussion also highlighted that digital governance is now closely tied to issues such as infrastructure, cybersecurity, data flows, compute capacity, and Brazil’s role in shaping global standards.
From the private-sector perspective, speakers stressed the importance of digital infrastructure as the foundation of Brazil’s digital economy. The conversation highlighted ongoing investments in the country’s data infrastructure and examined the debate surrounding REDATA, Brazil’s proposed special tax regime for data centers. Participants noted that uncertainty around incentives, tariffs, and regulatory obligations creates challenges for companies making long-term infrastructure investments. The broader discussion reinforced that regulatory predictability, and policy consistency will be essential if Brazil hopes to position itself as a competitive hub for digital infrastructure and innovation.
The event also explored Brazil’s emerging framework for online child safety through ECA Digital. Speakers described the initiative as part of a broader shift toward preventive governance and shared responsibility among platforms, regulators, law enforcement, families, and civil society. The framework introduces measures related to age assurance, protections for minors, restrictions on profiling and behavioral advertising directed at children, transparency obligations for large platforms, and stricter requirements regarding child sexual abuse and exploitation content. Participants emphasized that implementation will require significant coordination across institutions and sectors.
Electoral integrity and artificial intelligence were another major focus of the discussion. Participants examined recent rules adopted by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court regarding synthetic media, deepfakes, and platform responsibilities during elections. Rather than focusing exclusively on individual pieces of content, speakers argued that regulators and companies should pay greater attention to systems-level accountability, preparedness, and risk assessment mechanisms. The conversation also cautioned against reactive or emergency-driven regulation during election cycles, emphasizing the importance of predictable protocols and long-term governance structures.
The discussion concluded by placing Brazil’s digital governance choices within a broader geopolitical and development context. Speakers argued that digital technologies are increasingly tied to industrial policy, economic competitiveness, and global influence. Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, highlighted Brazil’s strategic advantages, including its industrial base, renewable energy matrix, domestic market, and access to critical minerals, while emphasizing that these assets will only translate into influence if accompanied by policy coherence and long-term planning. Speakers agreed that Brazil is facing an important decision point: whether to build a coherent regulatory environment capable of protecting rights while also attracting investment, enabling innovation, and strengthening the country’s role in the global digital economy.
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