At an event on Monday (2) in Paris, the minister, said that the trial on the Internet Civil Marco that will be resumed on Wednesday (4) in the court “could mean at least a sketch of social media regulation.”
The speech took place at the Franco-Brazilian Radio and Television Seminar, organized by Abert (Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters) at the Brazilian Embassy in France.
In the STF’s agenda is the resumption of resources against the Marco Civil Standards. In question are the liability of digital platforms for third party content and the obligation to remove offensive or hatred content without prior court order.
In the speech, Gilmar stated that the debate on the subject in Brazil is in “a moment of historical inflection” that requires “a fundamental review of our conceptual premises and regulatory milestones”.
He even stated that the maintenance of the status quo perpetuates “an irresponsibility regime” that allows the platforms to “exert almost sovereign power over public discourse without any democratic supervision.”
At various times, it indicated a favorable scenario to some kind of platform regulation.
According to him, the right to freedom of expression “has been paradoxically invoked not to protect individual positions, but to erect a protective shield from business models of companies in contrast to regulatory fronts.”
The Civil Marco is a 2014 law that establishes rights and duties for the use of the internet in the country. At the time, Article 19 was approved on the grounds of ensuring freedom of expression. The goal was to prevent networks from removing excessive content for fear of being held responsible.
O, with a request for a view of Minister André Mendonça.
Prior to that, ministers Dias Toffoli and Luiz Fux voted for the complete unconstitutionality of the current rule. Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the Court, opened divergence, in line that the current rule on the responsibility of social network platforms is declared only partially unconstitutional.
This Monday in Paris, Gilmar exposed reasons why, to him, “regulating social networks is not tolher or, anyway, mitigating the fundamental right to freedom of expression.”
One of these arguments would be that “digital platforms are not mere information drivers, but a true or true online speech regulators.”
Another would be the “political disaggregation in online speech”. “This disaggregation is not a side effect of platform performance, but a critical element” of the business model of companies in the sector, he said.
“It is legitimate to say that much of the online content moderation system in Brazil is already concentrated in the exercise of self -regulation strategies by the platforms. Self -regulation sufficiency raises, however, controversies in the face of massive content and massive propellation of potentially illicit third parties,” said Gilmar.
“All these factors lead to believe that although Article 19 has been of undeniable importance for the construction of a plural and open internet in Brazil, today the device seems to be overcome,” the minister concluded.
