Brazil’s Platform Cooperativism Paradox: State Recognition Without State Policy

Written by Kenzo Soares Seto

This report analyzes public policies regarding platform cooperatives and the digital solidarity economy in Brazil during the Lula administration and presents an action plan to advance the consolidation of worker-led platforms as more efficient, fair, and democratic alternatives to Big Tech.

Published on May 1, 2026

Kenzo Soares Seto’s ICDE report, “Platform Cooperatives and the State: Lessons from Brazil’s Public Policies (2022–2025)” shows that the Brazilian government has developed pioneering initiatives. These include a public white-label platform designed for use by multiple cooperatives, as well as the recognition of a new policy field: the Digital Solidarity Economy. However, these advances coexist with the absence of public procurement mechanisms, dedicated credit lines, regulatory reform, and tax incentives. By examining these tensions, the report provides an empirically grounded framework for understanding how states can enable or obstruct the development of democratic alternatives to platform capitalism.

Key Findings

• Federal investment reached USD 2.6 million, directed to the development of two platforms built in partnership with public universities for driver and delivery cooperatives. This development introduces fundamental innovations in data governance and the design of algorithmic systems under worker control.
• The public policy formulation process was highly participatory, involving academia and various social movements. However, financing relied on discretionary funds, and official councils remained dominated by traditional cooperativism.
• Despite advances in the executive branch, platform cooperatives have faced judicial setbacks and legislative stagnation: the current legal framework continues to hinder their formalization and growth.
• Even in a context of fiscal austerity, Brazil has the capacity to significantly expand support through its public banks and public funds, but this depends on greater interministerial coordination and formal mechanisms for movement representation.
• Building a viable ecosystem requires coordinated action across financing, technology infrastructure, governance, training, legislation, and movement building that extends beyond electoral cycles. 
• Based on interviews with key stakeholders, legal analysis, and participant observation in policymaking spaces, the report not only develops an analytical framework but also advances a set of concrete and detailed recommendations on financing, governance, legal reform, movement building, and technological infrastructure, offering lessons for policymakers and workers not only in Brazil but around the world.
  
  “Brazil was one of the first countries to recognize platform cooperativism as public policy. This report tells the achievements and gaps of four years of policy-making — and what to do next to make worker-owned apps a common reality, covering financing, governance, legal reform, and technological infrastructure,” said Dr. Kenzo Soares Seto, ICDE Affiliate Faculty, Post-doctoral Fellow at Yale Law School, and author of this report.

Explore further findings from the report,
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT in ENGLISH / PORTUGUESE.

About the Research
This ICDE report examines how the Brazilian federal government engaged with platform cooperativism from 2022 to 2025, elaborating on a detailed action plan to overcome the identified gaps. The report is based on fourteen in-depth interviews with cooperative leaders, government officials, software developers and platform workers across Brazil between 2022 and 2025. The researcher also analyzed four years of legislation, policy documents, and movement manifestos.

Contact 
For more information or to arrange interviews with the author, please contact Fernanda Rebelato Lopes de Oliveira

E: pcc@newschool.edu 

Published by Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy  in partnership with SOLTEC/UFRJ (Technical Solidarity Nucleus, Brazil) and DigiLabour (Canada).

About the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy  
The Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE) at The New School advances research, education, and policy work on platform cooperatives, cooperative AI, shared digital infrastructure, and democratic data governance. It brings together fellows, affiliated researchers, faculty, and advisors to study how cooperative ownership and governance can shape fairer forms of work in an economy transformed by automation, AI, and data extraction. Through its fellowship program, research reports, policy papers, and global convenings, ICDE develops practical and theoretical knowledge for workers, cooperatives, policymakers, and communities seeking alternatives to corporate control of the digital economy.

About SOLTEC/UFRJ (Technical Solidarity Nucleus)
The Núcleo de Solidariedade Técnica ( Technical Solidarity Nucleus – SOLTEC) is an interdisciplinary program for extension, research, and education in the fields of Social Technology and Solidarity Economy at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ), the largest federal university in Brazil. It is composed of professors, researches, undergraduate and graduate students of UFRJ, and is currently also a postgraduate program at UFRJ’s Center for Technology.

About DigiLabour
DigiLabour is a University of Toronto research initiative studying digital labor, worker organizing, platform cooperativism, AI and work, and the digital solidarity economy, with a focus on Latin America. The lab examines how worker collectives experiment with and govern digital platforms, data infrastructures, and AI systems. It coordinates the Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms project in Brazil and Argentina, hosts Fairwork Brazil, and is the founding home of Platforms & Society, launched by SAGE in 2024.