The Attorney General’s Office (AGU) informed, in a note, that Brazil is not a “land without law” and that it will act against changes in the content moderation policy of Meta’s social networks – which includes Facebook and Instagram – from the moment they affect democracy or violate Brazilian laws.
The statement by the AGU minister, Jorge Messias, highlighted that Meta’s decision will increase misinformation on social networks which, according to him, already face problems with fake news and hate speech.
“Our country is not a lawless land. We will not stand idly by in relation to attacks on democracy and the guarantees provided for in our legislation. It is not possible to understand that freedom of expression is a free pass to disseminate, in the virtual environment, deliberately false information which, in practice, is what prevents people from freely exercising their fundamental rights”, commented the minister of the AGU, a government body Executive responsible for representing the Union in the judiciary and extrajudicial spheres.
To protect various groups, Brazilian legislation introduces a series of restrictions on public speech. The law prohibits, for example, the defense of racism or Nazism, attacks on the current democratic order, or discriminatory offenses against groups based on their characteristics of race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation or origin.
For Minister Messias, the changes announced by the technology giant reinforce the need for regulation of social networks in Brazil and around the world and recalled that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) has two appeals with general repercussions on the topic under trial.
The STF analyzes the constitutionality of article 19 of the Marco Civil da Internet (Law 12,965/2014), a rule that established the rights and duties for the use of the internet in Brazil. Suspended last year, the trial is expected to resume this year.
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Citing alleged censorship on social media, Meta – the company that controls Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp – announced on Tuesday (7) that it will join forces with the government of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, to pressure countries that seek to regulate the digital environment.
Furthermore, big tech announced changes to its content moderation policy, including the end of the fact-checking program that verifies the veracity of information circulating on the networks; the end of restrictions on issues such as migration and gender; and the promotion of civic content, understood as information with a political-ideological content; and the deletion of only content considered to be serious violations.
The changes were the subject of a question from the Federal Public Ministry of São Paulo, which gave the company’s office in Brazil 60 working days to explain the changes.
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In the USA, Meta has already changed its policy on hate speech, starting to authorize insults of a homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic or even misogynistic nature, considering the context of the end of relationships. The Meta also now allows homosexuality or transsexuality to be associated with mental illnesses.
Commenting on the changes to the platform, Meta’s director of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, maintained that the rules were very restrictive and that the objective was to get rid of restrictions on immigration, gender identity and gender.
“It is not right that things can be said on TV or on the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms. These policy changes may take a few weeks to be fully implemented,” explained Kaplan.
