The STF (Supreme Federal Court) resumes this Thursday (11) the trial of those against the Court’s decision that expanded, last year, the liability of companies for illicit content published by users.
The session is scheduled to start at around 2pm, with the vote of Minister Dias Toffoli, rapporteur of the appeal presented by Facebook and others interested in the process, continuing. The expectation is that the minister will close the demonstration in the first part of the session and, later today, .
Toffoli has already read a good part of his vote in the session on Wednesday (10). During the demonstration, the minister announced that he intends to accept one of Facebook’s requests and propose one defined by the court.
The company believes that foreign legislation on this same topic provides for transition periods for the implementation of changes. As an example, he cited Japan, the European Union and the United Kingdom, which granted, respectively, 11, 15 and 17 months for companies to adjust their moderation systems and structures.
The lawyers also argued that the STF itself usually establishes transition rules in cases of complex regulatory changes or the review of consolidated understandings, in order to allow the affected sectors to adapt.
The deadline suggested by Toffoli, however, is much shorter than the examples presented by Meta. According to the minister, the reference he used was the Digital ECA (Child and Adolescent Statute), a law approved this year to reinforce the protection of children and adolescents on the internet, and which established a period of 60 days for companies to make the necessary adaptations. The rule, already in force, was one of the first in the country to impose obligations and sanctions directly on platforms.
The reference used by Toffoli, however, still depends on the approval of the majority of the Court. As this is a suggestion to be presented in the rapporteur’s vote, the support of at least five other ministers will be necessary for the deadline to become part of the STF’s final decision.
The vote so far
On Wednesday, Toffoli already proposed a series of adjustments to the thesis established by the Supreme Court last year. One of the highlights of the vote deals with the types of platforms that continue to be protected by the rule that requires a court order for accountability.
The thesis predicted that health services email, private messaging apps and video conferencing platforms would continue under such protection, while other types of platforms could already be held responsible in the event of omission following a notification requesting removal of content.
For the minister, however, this list of services that continue to be governed by the rule that requires a court order for liability must reach a series of other platforms that have little or no influence on the circulation of information published by users.
The minister cited Wikipedia as an example, which barely interferes with user activity online. For him, Wikipedia’s role is very different from that of social networks that collect data, use recommendation algorithms and promote content to users. According to him, these other networks pose greater risks to fundamental rights and should be treated differently, with stricter liability rules.
“If these providers have different activities, different business models and functionalities that are not equivalent to those mentioned in the grounds of the votes to justify the deficits in the protection of fundamental rights on the internet, especially if they have no or low interference in the communicative and informational flow, strictly speaking, there is no reason to exclude them from the incidence of article 19 of the MCI”, stated the minister.
Toffoli also sought to clarify that email and private messaging services will only be in this category when they are limited to communications protected by confidentiality. If the platform starts to boost content or insert targeted advertising, it may be subject to stricter rules.
Legal headquarters in the country
Another point addressed in the vote this Wednesday (10) involves the requirement that all platforms have legal representation in Brazil, provided for in the thesis approved in 2025.
When responding to one of the requests in the appeal, the minister suggested, however, restricting the obligation to platforms with “economic operations in the country”, waiving the obligation for providers focused exclusively on social, cultural or public utility purposes.
The point provoked a reservation from Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who has already had legal disputes with platform X, belonging to Elon Musk, on the topic. He stated that non-economic platforms can also be used to commit crimes and defended caution to avoid difficulties in applying Brazilian court decisions.
“I already raise my concern with this point because, today, crimes committed on the networks are not only committed by those who have an economic purpose, they are also by those who have an ideological purpose. A platform, for example, with Nazi messages without an economic purpose, if it does not have a headquarters here, there is no way for Brazilian justice to control it. And then it goes from 8 to 80, if it does not have a headquarters, it ends up having to be completely removed from circulation in the national territory”, said the minister.
Toffoli responded that he understands the reservation and that he is open to reviewing the proposal during the debate that will continue today.
