Connected in the struggle: Workers,social media and mobilizations in food delivery and road transport in Brazil

Abstract

Mobilizations of truck drivers and delivery workers in Brazil in 2018 and 2020–2021, key moments of recent labour mobilizations, relied heavily on the use of social media. We evaluate the usefulness of social media in terms of three aspects: (a) to what extent has social media been useful in creating a collective worker identity; (b) has the use of social media facilitated democracy within workers’ organizations and (c) how secure has the use of social media been in terms of preventing persecution by the state and other antagonistic actors? Both groups of workers have experienced enormous difficulties in defining their status (as employees, or entrepreneurs, for example) due to notorious disagreements among the main organizations. As a result, the worker identity remains fragile and contested. Despite the use of social networks having facilitated the participation and engagement of workers in various mobilizations, democracy within workers organizations has not yet benefitted fully. In parallel, despite having allowed increased visibility for workers movements and its leaders, recent repression and surveillance of leaders of both groups of workers created doubts about the security of social media. A crucial question to be tackled is the extent to which these difficulties are connected to the use of social media or if problems would have arisen otherwise.