The Federal Supreme Court (STF) will once again discuss this Wednesday (18) the rules governing the responsibility of digital platforms and social networks for content posted by users.
The trial will resume with the vote of Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the Court. He will be the next to speak out because he made a request for a review (more time for analysis) last Wednesday (11).
So far, ministers Dias Toffoli and Luiz Fux have been the only ones to vote. They are the rapporteurs of the two appeals that are being judged together.
The judges defended tougher rules for the liability regime of so-called “big techs” regarding publications made on the internet.
Both voted to invalidate the current rule, which only allows platforms to be held responsible if they fail to comply with a court decision ordering the removal of posts.
The discussion in the Supreme Court revolves around excerpts from the Marco Civil da Internet, the 2014 law that establishes rules for the use of the Internet in Brazil.
Fux’s vote
Last Wednesday, for content published by users.
The minister proposed that companies be punished if they fail to delete posts with content offensive to their honor and image after notification from the offended person, that is, without the need for a court decision.
Offensive posts only involve situations that are characterized as crimes, such as slander, insult or defamation.
For more serious publications, such as hate speech, racism, pedophilia and coup d’état, Fux voted for there to be a duty of monitoring by the platforms in order to remove the publications, regardless of whether there is notification.
Toffoli’s vote
For Dias Toffoli, the current platform liability regime is unconstitutional. .
The judge voted to make the platform liable after extrajudicial notification from the user requesting the removal of a publication as a general rule. If she fails to take any action, she could be punished (even without a court decision).
The new rule would apply to “offensive” and “illegal” content ranging from damage to honor and image to “unequivocally disinformative” materials, such as “fraudulent news”.
He also voted to establish a list of more serious topics, such as coup d’état, terrorism and racism, which platforms must monitor and take down directly, without notification.
How is it today
Currently, the Marco Civil da Internet only holds platforms civilly liable if there is no compliance with a court decision ordering the removal of content posted by users. The guarantee is in article 19 of the law.
Civil liability involves the duty to compensate for possible damages, for example.
The two exceptions to this command are: dissemination of images or videos with nude scenes, or sexual acts of a private nature, or for copyright infringement. In these cases, the platform must remove the content through extrajudicial notification.
