ABSTRACT
Global internet governance is the management of the technological infrastructure of digital capitalism. Therefore, discussions on the role of the state in internet governance are part of a broader debate on the role of the state in the regulation of digital capitalism. The “hands-off” approach that prevailed in the 1990s corresponded to a historical period and particular institutional settings in the US and Western Europe. As digital capitalism expanded geographically, states in the Global South started participating in internet governance and designing their own rules for the development of digital markets within their borders. This chapter focuses on Latin America to analyze the role of the state in internet governance and in the regulation of digital capitalism beyond first-movers. Drawing upon research on critical comparative capitalism, the chapter proposes a perspective based on the Varieties of Digital Capitalism (VoDC) to study how the role of the state in internet governance and in the regulation of digital capitalism differs from one country to another in the region. The chapter paves the way for a more heterogeneous understanding of the effect of current technological transformations on the national, regional, and global forms of organisation of digital capitalism.
