Antonio Tejeda | Ethnic-differential approach in digital public policy | Tumaco, Colombia
Address by Dr Antonio Tejeda Encinas, President of the Euro-American Committee of Digital Law (CEA Digital Law) and CEO of META Channel Corporation.
On 30 October 2025, Dr Antonio Tejeda Encinas took part in the 6th Afro-Colombian Congress of Interdisciplinary Studies, held in San Andrés de Tumaco as part of the founding process of the future Afro-Colombian University. His address conveyed a key message: in the 21st century, sovereignty is contested in data, algorithms and digital infrastructure, not only in physical territory.
In his talk, Dr Tejeda Encinas warned of the growing risk of a new digital colonialism, in which the identity, culture and ancestral knowledge of Afro-Colombian communities can be used, processed and monetised without community control or any return of value. He stressed the need for a strategy that combines two complementary strengths: the European Union’s advanced regulatory method and the robust recognition of collective ethnic rights that distinguishes Colombia’s constitutional framework.
His proposal was built around three core operational tools:
Operational Ethnic Habeas Data: recognition of the right of Afro-Colombian communities to manage, audit, control and benefit from their collective data.
Digital Prior Consultation: adapting prior consultation to audit algorithms, review biases, determine intellectual property ownership and guarantee tangible benefits before any technology is deployed.
Digital Airbag: an algorithmic governance mechanism that automatically blocks discriminatory content generated by AI systems and triggers mandatory human oversight.
Dr Tejeda Encinas emphasised that responsibility for AI always lies with the authors, configurers and supervisors of the systems, never with the machine. Traceability, oversight and accountability must be non-negotiable.
This address in Tumaco comes at a decisive moment: the future Afro-Colombian University has the opportunity to position itself not as a passive user of external technology, but as a governing body, an auditor and a producer of ethical and digital standards, building a model in which there is no technology without identity and in which digital sovereignty is an effective guarantee for the community.
