The Ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) formed on Wednesday a majority of votes to hold social networks responsible for the contents published by their users, during the trial of actions that question points of the Internet Civil Marco. So far, with variations of form, Ministers Dias Toffoli, Luiz Fux, Luis Roberto Barroso, Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes have voted favorably the obligation of moderation by the platforms themselves to remove illegal content, without the need for court orders.
For now, only Minister André Mendonça voted so that the removal of contents generally depends on a judicial determination. He was in favor of the so -called self -regulation, claiming that current legislation already has instruments for the removal of improper content.
The trial was suspended after Mendes’s vote and is expected to resume on Thursday for its probable conclusion, with the votes of the remaining four ministers. Until its completion, ministers can change their votes.
In addition to judgment at the Supreme Court, the theme has also been under discussion in Congress for at least two years, but was not taken to vote amid strong pressure from the so -called “Big Techs”.
At this Wednesday’s session at the Supreme Court, Minister Dino exhibited posts on social networks that encouraged massacres in Brazilian schools to justify the exclusion of these contents by the companies themselves. He was holder of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security in the Lula administration, when he tried to charge a more active stance of the platforms against this type of content. “Responsibility does not prevent freedom. Responsibility avoids barbarism, avoids tyrannies,” said Dino.
Zanin also voted in this regard and stated that he cannot fit the users exclusively the burden of appealing to court to withdraw offensive posts. “This freedom of expression may be poorly used to attack the rule of law, people’s physical safety, including children and adolescents,” he said.
Continues after advertising
“Veil of irresponsibility”
The vote that formed the majority was that of the STF dean, Mendes, who, in an extremely critical manifestation, even cited the instrumentalization of these platforms including to attacks on institutions, as occurred on January 8, 2023. The magistrate stated that without regulatory intervention that alters the logic of economic incentives to the platforms with increased posts, specificly structural moderation initiatives are structural to reduce damage to democracies.
“The way it is written today, the Internet Civil Marco represents an irresponsibility veil for digital platforms. Even if they are informed of the occurrence of crimes on their platforms, they cannot be held responsible for damage generated by maintaining this content in the case of a court order,” he criticized.
The president of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, said that a final decision will depend on an assessment of the details of the demonstrations of each of the ministers, the so -called modulation.
Continues after advertising
Social networking platforms advocate the maintenance of the current model, in which they can only be responsible for damage caused by users of users to comply with judicial decision that determines the overthrow of publications.
In a statement prior to this Wednesday’s vote on the STF, Google, Alphabet, said that the Internet Civil Marco can and should be enhanced, provided that procedural guarantees and criteria that avoid legal insecurity and indiscriminate removal of content are established. The platform said it already efficiently and on a large scale removes content in violation of the rules of each of its platforms.
The goal, owner of Facebook and Instagram, also said in a previous position that it is committed to “continually improving our systems and policies to help keep people safe by using our applications.” Tiktok and X did not respond to comments requests.
