Brazil, China and Internet Governance: Mapping Divergence and Convergence

The Internet has continuously been drawing the attention of states. Governance became a central aspect to negotiating tensions between state and non-state actors involved in the Internet ecosystem. This paper draws a comparative analysis between China and Brazil – with a particular emphasis on the latter – in the negotiations on global Internet governance. The primary objective of this work is to identify similarities and differences between both countries’ cyber-policies lying at the intersection of security, privacy, and surveillance. More specifically, it aims to is to determine if Brazil and China can cooperate on a common agenda in the BRICS and assess how the two states deal with the role of the United States in Internet governance. The last section focuses in mapping the challenges and opportunities that emerge from these dynamics, in particular their impact within the BRICS.