Panama: Information Asymmetry during the Pandemic in a Country with a Digital Divide and Zero-Rating Practices

Abstract

We present the results of an exploratory-descriptive study that aimed to know how people in Panama were informed during the pandemic (May 2021–January 2022), considering the digital divide and zero-rating practices through which mobile phone users access digital services free of cost. The study was conducted in four consecutive phases using a mixed methodology that included secondary data systematization, three online surveys, and eight in-person focus groups in six of the country’s ten provinces and two of the three indigenous regions with provincial rank. The findings reveal the emerging use of instant messaging applications and social media to obtain information on the country’s affairs, vast asymmetries in access to the different media and information channels, and little trust in their messages. In light of the theoretical references on the rights of recipients, the right to information, and the digital divide, the situations found could be a litany of territorial asymmetry, one of the expressions of social inequality in the country. Given the widespread use of instant messaging applications, especially WhatsApp, available free of charge in prepaid data plans, a specific study on the impact of zero-rating practices on information consumption seems necessary, especially in socially vulnerable populations in Panama and other countries where the digital divide is pronounced and this type of agreement exists between telephone companies and digital service platforms.