Falsa percepção de gratuidade: a prática do zero-rating e o marco civil da internet

Abstract

In the face of recent initiatives to eliminate, in the United States, the non-discriminatory rules for the fl ow of information and contents through the web, new regulatory challenges arise for the governance of Internet, especially in regard to the regulation of practices that restrict the informational access of Internet users. In the Brazilian context, the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet established net neutrality as a guiding principle for Internet use in the country, that is, it instituted the obligation of isonomic treatment of data packets that carry content through the Internet. In this scenario, the present paper aims to confront the off ering of Internet bundles that are free of charge for certain applications or contents, practice known as zero-rating, with the net neutrality principle. Therefore, a descriptive research of qualitative nature was developed, based on bibliographic and documentary analyses. The results indicate that zero-rating is not compatible with the normative provisions established in the regulatory framework for the Internet in Brazil. In summary, the research problematizes and questions the practices that limit the flow of web content and prevent users` freedom of choice on the world wide web and confronts them with the Internet governance in Brazil.