Lina Ventura

Brazilian digital rights activist who pioneered online anti-cyberbullying initiatives

Lina Ventura is a Brazilian digital rights advocate and social entrepreneur whose work has profoundly impacted online safety and gender equality in Latin America. Born in 1992 in São Paulo, she gained prominence in 2014 when she launched Stop Valentina, an online platform that combated cyberbullying targeting LGBTQ+ youth. This initiative grew into a national movement after viral social media campaigns in 2016.

Her 2018 TEDx talk "The Power of Digital Empathy" has been viewed over 2 million times. Ventura's 2019 collaboration with UNICEF produced the first regional curriculum on digital citizenship, implemented in 15 Latin American countries. She co-founded FeminaTech in 2017 to increase women's participation in tech sectors, which now operates in 8 countries with 12,000+ graduates.

Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Forbes Latin America, and Brazil's Globo network. In 2020, she was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People for her efforts in combating online hate speech. Ventura currently advises the Brazilian Senate on digital legislation and chairs the Latin America chapter of the Global Network Initiative.