COLOMBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Maria Carolina Pardo, Ciro Meza, Angélica Navarro and Carlos Ignacio Arboleda, Baker McKenzie
lines for the use of ICT. Finally, constitutional judges resolve claims pertaining to the infringe - ment of fundamental rights filed by users against other users and/or social media administrators. The highest constitutional body is the Colom - bian Constitutional Court. The SIC in particular has extensive enforcement powers to ensure compliance with data protec - tion and consumer protection laws. These pow - ers include: • investigations and inspections – the SIC can conduct investigations and on-site inspec - tions to ensure that social media platforms comply with data protection regulations, as well as send requests for information to better understand the operation of the platforms; • sanctions and penalties – the SIC can impose fines and other penalties on social media platforms that violate data protection laws; and • orders to cease activities – the SIC can issue orders to cease activities that are found to be in violation of the law, including the suspen - sion of data processing activities.
A significant enforcement action was taken by the SIC against WhatsApp LLC. In May 2021, the SIC issued a mandatory compliance order to WhatsApp, requiring the company to align its data processing practices with Colombian data protection standards. This order included creating a compliant data privacy policy, imple - menting clear consent mechanisms (written in Spanish) and registering their databases with the national database registry. Additionally, the Constitutional Court of Colom - bia issued a ruling in case T-229-20, which per - tained to the blocking of a journalist on Twitter (now X) by a government account. The Court ruled that such actions interfered with the jour - nalist’s right to access information and express themselves, emphasising the importance of free - dom of expression on social media platforms.
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