The company Meta, responsible for social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, will have 72 hours to clarify doubts from the Brazilian government about the change in content moderation policies announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The notification establishing the deadline will be presented this Friday (10) by the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), informed Palácio do Planalto.
“We will present a judicial notification, and the company will have 72 hours to inform the Brazilian government what, in fact, Meta’s policy for Brazil is”, informed the Union’s attorney general, Jorge Messias, after participating, in Brasília, meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa (photo).
According to Rui Costa, the government is very concerned about the announcement that Meta will no longer control content. “This has a huge impact on Brazilian society. It impacts children when it comes to inappropriate content and child trafficking. It impacts public security, when it comes to information that concerns people’s safety, criminal practice”, said Costa. He also cited examples of impact involving the most diverse types of discrimination based on race, creed, gender and region, ending up promoting hate speech.
The minister also mentioned the case of using artificial intelligence to produce a video with false information attributed to the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad. According to Costa, videos like this even impact the country’s economy.
“People end up not being able to distinguish what is true from what is a lie. This ends up impacting the country, the nation, the people and the economy. We are talking about national sovereignty”, he emphasized.
Given the situation, the government intends to create a working group involving ministries and the communications sector, in the search for improving the Brazilian legal framework. “We will seek dialogue with entities that represent the media in general, including the Brazilian press, seeking to maintain the fundamental principle of democracy, which is total freedom of expression. There cannot be a difference in treatment between a TV that operates in Brazil, subject to a set of regulations, and someone that has a gigantic reach [das redes sociais]”, he argued.
However, the minister highlighted, freedom of expression of opinion on any topic does not mean absence of responsibility for crimes committed.
AGU
The Union’s attorney general said that Brazilian society will not be at the mercy of this type of policy that Meta is trying to implement. “Our concern at this moment is that the company will go public [para se manifestar claramente]as she was not transparent at any time.”
According to Jorge Messias, the AGU will file, today, a notification for Meta to explain to the Brazilian authorities what the company will do to protect children, teenagers, women and small traders, among others, who use the platform as a business model.
“There are a number of people who frequently use this platform and who will allegedly be very vulnerable to the new policy. We do not clearly know what the new policy is due to the company’s lack of transparency”, he argued, remembering that Brazil has very strict legislation to protect such audiences.
