The aim of this paper is to understand how a group of organisations participated in the public digital debate in Colombia around a regulatory decision contrary to their interests. In particular, we focus on Twitter and Decree 1844 of 2018, which regulated the prohibition to possess, deliver, distribute and commercialise illicit substances.
Rather than a substantive approach to the public policy problem, this paper seeks to situate civil society participation in a specific political conjuncture and to describe the framings and narratives that organisations faced and how they responded to them.
The paper is divided as follows: (i) takes as a starting point the approach of the government of Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) on the matter, which moved between a progressive vision close to organisations and regressive regulation; (ii) describes the change of narrative with the arrival of Iván Duque in 2018, marked mainly by the return of punitivism and a public security approach; (iii) explains the results of a monitoring of the digital debate around the discussion on the 'minimum dose' and the decree at three different moments, with an emphasis on the participation of organisations; (iv) addresses the coverage of a group of media outlets around the decree and the subsequent contrary decision of the Constitutional Court; and (v) offers some conclusions.
