The president (PT) signed this Wednesday (20) two decrees on social networks, regulating rules established in a judgment by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) and defining an agency linked to the government to monitor these obligations.
Unlike bills, decrees do not need to be approved by the Legislature.
One of them is an update to the decree that guides the , from 2016, considering the new determinations related to the responsibility of social networks established by the (Federal Supreme Court) in a judgment concluded last year. The second text deals specifically with combating misogyny and violence against women in the digital environment.
Among the predictions is that of assigning responsibility for monitoring whether platforms are complying with the rules imposed by the court. With this, the agency becomes a regulatory body for digital networks more broadly.
Initially responsible only for supervising legislation on personal data, the ANPD now also has the responsibility of monitoring ECA Digital, a law that came into force in March this year and defined obligations related to children and adolescents for platforms.
In this context, the body began to have a new structure, with more employees, and was transformed into a regulatory agency, with legal provision for decision-making and financial autonomy. The directors that make up the body are appointed by the Presidency for fixed terms and undergo a hearing in the Senate.
Last year, the STF judged the constitutionality of part of the Marco Civil da Internet, a law approved in 2014 according to which social networks were only subject to pay compensation for content posted by a third party if, after a court decision ordering its removal, they kept content up.
In the thesis approved, the court – which until then only included non-consensual nudity and copyright infringement. It also created the obligation for proactive moderation by the networks for a list of topics — such as anti-democratic crimes, terrorism, incitement to racism and incitement to suicide — providing for punishment in case of systemic failure. In other cases, the STF understood that networks can only be punished if they do not remove them after notification. As for crimes against honor, the rule has not changed.
There are still appeals pending analysis by the court. Furthermore, at the time, the STF also appealed to Congress to legislate on the matter.
The argument used by members of the government to defend the issuance of a decree is that the Supreme Court’s decision, despite already being valid, would be ineffective and operational, both due to a lack of detail on points that would be broad or generic, and also due to .
Such an internal debate has existed since last year, but has advanced in recent weeks.
Representatives of social media companies, online shopping platforms (marketplaces), civil society and the Management Committee of Brazil () were heard by the government.
Secom (Secretariat for Social Communication of the Presidency) and , which have structures dedicated to the themes of law and digital policies, are at the forefront of the text. And in the case of the text about combating misogyny, the Ministry of Women.
One of the points under discussion within the government was whether there would be deadlines to be established for platforms to remove content, according to the different categories established by the Supreme Court. This item, however, should not be in the text on the Marco Civil da Internet.
Only the text on combating violence against women should have a time limit for the company to act. With the exception of ECA Digital, initiatives to approve network regulation in Congress have not progressed in recent years.
The Fake News PL, for example, was nicknamed the “censorship PL”. One of the main conflicts that contributed to halting the discussion on the text, reported at the time by deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP), was the decision on who would oversee the rules that would be established by the project.
