João Brant says that big tech’s decision to suspend the fact-checking system on its platforms is “an invitation to far-right activism” in Brazil
The Secretary of Digital Policies of the President’s Communications Secretariat (PT), João Brant, criticized this Tuesday (7.jan.2025) the decision of of the fact-checking system and restrictions on publications on its platforms, such as and the .
Em on Instagram, Brant stated that the decision “explains Meta’s alliance with the US government to confront the European Union, Brazil and other countries that seek to protect rights in the online environment”. He also said that the measure is “an invitation to far-right activism”.
“Facebook and Instagram will give full weight to individual freedom of expression and fail to protect other individual and collective rights. The reprioritization of ‘civic discourse’ means an invitation to far-right activism here”he stated.
The secretary also criticized the statement by the president of big techMark Zuckerberg, that “secret courts” from Latin America “order silent removal of content” on social networks. He said that the speech is an indirect message to the STF (Supreme Federal Court).
“It is a very strong statement, which refers to the STF as a ‘secret court’, attacks fact-checkers (saying that they ‘destroyed more than they built trust’) and questions the bias of Meta’s own ‘trust and safety’ team –which ‘justifies’ a maneuver to escape California law and take the team to Texas”Brant wrote.
According to the secretary, the announcement reinforces the relevance of ongoing actions in Europe, Brazil and Australia to regulate social networks.
BRAZIL AND STF
Meta and other technology companies have had several meetings with the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) in recent years. They promised the magistrates that they would have a strict policy to control false information that was potentially offensive to democracy.
It is not yet clear how the change now announced by Mark Zuckerberg will be received by the Courts of Justice in Brazil, especially by STF minister Alexandre de Moraes, critic of social networks and rapporteur of the so-called investigation of fake news.
In the video, Zuckerberg also stated that he will speak with the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump (Republican), to try to prevent content from North American companies from being censored in other countries for violating local regulations on social networks.
“The United States has the strongest constitutional protections for free speech in the world. Europe has more and more laws that institutionalize censorship, making innovation there very difficult. Latin American countries have ‘secret courts’ that can order companies to silently remove content from platforms”he declared.
