The use of cyberspace by the public administration in the COVID-19 pandemic: diagnosis and vulnerabilities

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, while demanding social distancing, imposes approximation and coordination of efforts by public and private entities through the Internet and digital services. This article analyzes the use and operationalization of cyberspace by the public administration in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. It presents a diagnosis of the vulnerabilities and challenges related to this growing operationalization. The public administration began to operationalize cyberspace more vigorously from the 1990s, with e-government. Inter-governmental and governmental coordination strategies imposed by the current situation would be impossible without the intensification of the operationalization of cyberspace by the public administration apparatus, which transposes unusual and even unprecedented practices and actions to the digital domain. Given its artificiality, cyberspace can only be operated by those with the means to do so. Cyber-democratization comes up against the digital divide. The current need for social distancing highlights technical and socio-economic challenges arising from the transposition of the public administration apparatus into cyberspace.