David Nemer

David Nemer is a Brazilian assistant professor, author, ethnographer, and researcher specialized in information anthropology. He works in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Nemer is the author of the book Favela Digital - The Other Side of Technology and one of the references in promoting broadband internet access in marginalized communities. He has also conducted work on internet access in Cuba and Appalachia (Eastern Kentucky).

Working in the areas of ICT4D, community informatics, and science and technology studies, he is associate editor of the Journal of Community Informatics, and review editor of the journal Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society. In the field of ICT4D, Nemer helped to lead its largest conference, ICTD, in its 10th edition. His research has been supported by a variety of sponsors including Google, Microsoft Research, United Nations University, Fraunhofer Institute, Confucius Institute, and the German Academic Exchange Service. From Fall 2015 through the summer of 2019 he worked in the School of Information Science at the University of Kentucky.

During Brazil's presidential elections of 2018, Nemer was one of the researchers who led the investigation related to the production and distribution of fake news on social media. His research focused on pro-Bolsonaro WhatsApp groups and Nemer identified the human infrastructure, based on 3 groups of users, that produced and spread the misinformation.. Nemer's most recent findings have highlighted how WhatsApp has served as a space to radicalize the right in Bolsonaro’s Brazil.

Nemer won the 2018-19 Faculty Research Award from the University of Kentucky; this award recognizes a faculty member who has achieved a record of noteworthy achievements. In 2018, Nemer was recognized as a rising leader for the promotion of diversity in the field of technology by the 2018 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, and in 2016 was honored as one of the highlights in science and technology by the State Department of Science and Technology, Brazil.

• Ph.D., Indiana University, Informatics (Computing, Culture, and Society), 2015, USA.
• M.Sc., Saarland University, Computer Science, 2009, Germany.
• B.Sc., Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Business Administration, 2007, Brazil.
• B.Sc., FAESA, Computer Science, 2006, Brazil.

In his book Favela Digital – The Other Side of Technology, Nemer aims to understand the experience of marginalized people in community technology centers in the favelas (urban slums) of Vitoria, Brazil, and shows in photos the reality of day to day life in the favelas and how their residents use digital technology. The book has been reviewed in The Information Society, LSE Review of Books, and the Journal of Community Informatics. Favela Digital was one of the reads on Brazilian politics, history, and culture for the 2016 Rio Olympics recommended by the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2018, Favela Digital was adapted into a musical by the Cia. Passinho Brazil.