The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, said that, together with the Secretariat of Communication (Secom), the portfolio is preparing a proposal for a bill to regulate social networks. The estimate, according to him, is to forward the text – which already has the general lines defined and unity in the government team – for evaluation by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva next week. Dino informed that if the president agrees with the proposal, the text will be forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies.
“We already have the processing of a bill there, under the rapporteurship of Deputy Orlando [Silva] and our initial idea is that the content is used to qualify, and we have modern, adequate legislation that protects freedoms and guarantees, at the same time, that the internet is not a war. That there is duty and care on the part of companies, and there is a system of responsibility, in the case of committing crimes through these platforms, ”he said.
According to the minister, the project under discussion in the Chamber has already passed through the Senate and, apparently, a change will occur on the part of the deputies and this implies a return to the evaluation of the senators. Even so, he said he expected the law to pass later this year.
Dino recalled that, in parallel, there are two direct actions of unconstitutionality being processed in the STF. “There will be a public hearing on March 28, and of course, once this stage is concluded, the Supreme Court can also judge, so there are two different paths that will complement each other, in the sense of having new legal frameworks on the internet in Brazil later this year. 2023, either by deliberation of Congress or by deliberation of the Supreme Court”, he added.
On another front, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is preparing a report that will also be forwarded to Congress. According to the president of the TSE and minister of Alexandre de Moraes, the intention is to add suggestions to the original PL of the Senate and in process in the Chamber with rapporteur of the deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB – SP). Moraes added that, to complete the work, he has been talking to representatives of social networks.
For the president of the TSE, the discussions have to take into account three points: transparency in the use of algorithms, greater engagement and monetization of social networks. “It doesn’t matter what the information is, if you’re making money you have to have information responsibility,” he said.
Minister Alexandre de Moraes- Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil
Moraes defended that, at this moment, for a new legislation, it is not necessary to define the concept of fake news, under penalty of the country being left without regulation of the sector. “We don’t need, at first, to demand that all, absolutely all information be checked by the platforms, but we can demand these three points and that all big techs accountable, with greater transparency of algorithms. There is need. The use of algorithms makes any platform stop being something inert where content was placed and started to act. If she started to act, she could be held responsible”, she pointed out.
“What you can’t do in real life, you can’t do hidden on social media. That’s simple. Now, how to hold accountable, how to go after anonymity, social networks that hide in no longer tax havens, but digital ones? That’s another question. If we don’t have solid premises to start the discussion, we won’t get anywhere. The first premise is: the law is valid for the real and the virtual.”
President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira – Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil
The mayor, Arthur Lira, defended balance in the discussion of the subject and that radicalizations of neither party cannot be allowed. Lira highlighted that, since the approval of the text by the Senate, many facts have occurred involving participation in social networks. For him, it is possible to reach a consensus among the proposals for the approval of a law for the sector.
“It will be up to the rapporteur Orlando to make a synthesis of proposals that will come from the Executive Branch, the Judiciary, civil society and interested bodies, so that we can really build an adequate text, which brings about the changes that we, all Brazilians, want, so that the freedom of expression is preserved, but, at the same time, the necessary responsibility with all the appropriate ways both for the big techs as well as for the users”, he said.
“The theme is controversial, it is abstract, it is subjective, as the minister himself said that there are dark, opaque, and clear areas, so we will have a hard time approving this text. We weren’t even able to vote on the urgency in the last term, but the need to reach a good conclusion, on an issue that is unbalanced, is important for all of us to commit to”, he concluded.
In Lira’s assessment, the topic is quite mature in terms of its backbone. “The judiciary will make some kind of contribution around the 15th, 16th and the rapporteur has already been talking with some advisers and with the Minister of Justice to also bring the executive’s contributions to the plenary. Why is it important? Because they are sectors that will influence the voting and the conduction of votes so that we have approval. On the one hand, we will not be able to translate with excessive freedom of expression, in which everything is permissive and not just a punitive restriction.”
Seminar
Dino, Moraes and Lira participated in Rio, this Monday (13), in the Seminar Freedom of Expression, Social Networks and Democracy, at the Cultural Center of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in Botafogo, in the south zone of Rio.
Minister Gilmar Mendes at the Freedom of Expression, Social Media and Democracy seminar –Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil
At the same meeting, STF Minister Gilmar Mendes gave a report on how this type of legislation has been treated in other parts of the world. He said that, in Brazil, discussions on regulating platforms have acquired a new lease of life, due to what he called “the astonishing episodes of January 8, 2023”.
“The brutality of the scenes of attacks on democratic institutions were preceded by the circulation of online content produced by extremist groups in the days before the acts of massacre and terrorism,” he said.
“There is an ongoing awareness that the cruel episodes experienced at the beginning of the year were virtually orchestrated, without the intermediaries who participated in the dissemination of these contents having adopted minimal measures to deal with the systemic risks generated by hateful communications”, he added.
The seminar is a partnership between the Judiciary Innovation, Administration and Research Center of FGV Knowledge, with Rede Globo and support from the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development and Research (IDP).
The intention is to discuss, from the perspective of digital democracy, topics such as contemporary digital governance from the perspective of the Democratic State of Law, and “cross-cutting issues about data protection, artificial intelligence and its regulations, technology, communication and freedom of expression”.
