Social media platforms did not attend the public hearing promoted by the government () this Wednesday (22) for .
Alphabet (/), Discord, Kwai, , Meta, and X (ex-) had been called to the meeting. The absence was announced by the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, at the opening of the meeting, who stated that the openness for dialogue remains, even though the companies have not accepted the invitation.
Before that, the minister also stated that there is no pre-judgment from the government regarding any of the big techs.
“The platforms were invited and preferred not to participate in this hearing. It is an option, we respect it. This does not prohibit dialogue, which is always open. I even received contact from some platforms expressing their interest in continuing to collaborate with the government”, said Messias .
Jorge Messias stated that the objective of the public hearing on the regulation and moderation policies of social networks and platforms is to gather material to take to the STF (Supreme Federal Court).
“The objective here is to obtain subsidies, which will serve to organize and systematize and, based on our status as a Union, as amicus curiae in the STF, take it to the STF, which is responsible for deciding on the issue at the moment, so that the STF can actually understand the phenomenon that is taking place and decide better”, said the .
Since last November, the court has been judging sections of the Marco Civil regarding the liability of social networks for content posted by third parties. The analysis was interrupted due to the minister’s request — more time to analyze the case — in the penultimate session of the year.
Without mentioning Meta, Messias spoke about recent changes that affect the lives of millions of Brazilians and, subsequently, said that there would be no pre-judgment of any platform.
“We are talking about a series of situations that are worrying us, are worrying Brazilian society, we cannot ignore that the recent changes that have been implemented, some we know, others we don’t know, they affect the lives of millions of Brazilians. “
“I need to say that there is no pre-trial on the part of the government of any network, no action carried out by any platforms. We are interested in dialoguing and working in cooperation with all platforms”, he said. “We recognize the importance of platforms in the lives of Brazilians.”
The AGU called the hearing after a response from , owner of and , regarding the issues and opened a consultation to send suggestions.
At the time, the body stated in a note that, in its understanding and that of ministries that work on the subject, “the current terms of use of the platforms, as well as the changes now reported by Meta, are not adequate to Brazilian legislation and are not sufficient to protection of fundamental citizenship rights”.
It also said that “some aspects contained in the Meta document cause serious concern in the AGU and federal government bodies”,
This Wednesday, Messias stated that the government’s biggest concern on the issue is security. And he made more than one mention of businesspeople, which can be read as signaling to entrepreneurs.
“Millions of Brazilians use the most diverse platforms to do business and it is these Brazilians that the government is concerned and committed to”, he stated. “We are concerned about protecting children, teenagers, business people, consumers, society in general from crimes of all kinds.”
The executive secretary of Secom (Communication Secretariat) of the Presidency of the Republic, Tiago César, stated that the issue is central to the government at this time.
“For us, at Secom, with the challenges of changing ministry, with so many urgent tasks to be undertaken, we consider the moment to be extremely relevant, given that we see an escalation of threats to the democratic system, historical revisionism, disinformation. The topic is flooding our daily agenda”, he said.
Secom had its command changed at the beginning of the month. O took over the position previously held by .
Among the open questions in the Brazilian scenario is what the stance of the platforms will be from now on and – like those already announced by the CEO of Meta –, in the face of an important change in the geopolitical scenario, with the return of the presidency of .
As for , Meta stated that, at the moment, it is closing the system only in the United States, where it says it will test and improve the Community Notes model, “before beginning any expansion to other countries.”
In relation to other changes announced by the CEO last week, such as the reduced use of automated systems, the company does not make any reservations that the application would be restricted to the USA, indicating that they also apply to Brazil.
The document was (13), in response to a request for clarification from the AGU after Zuckerberg’s announcement.
