The technology giant Meta – which controls the Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp networks – responded on Monday night (13) to questions from the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) about changes to the company’s moderation policies, including, the end of the fact-checking program, which indicated when false information circulated on the networks. 
In a note, the AGU informed that it had called a technical meeting for this Tuesday (14) under the coordination of the National Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Democracy, linked to the AGU, to discuss the actions and measures in relation to the changes announced by the big tech American.
“Only after this analysis, the AGU, together with the other bodies, will comment on the next steps in relation to the matter and make the content of the statement public”, informed the AGU.
Representatives from the Ministries of Human Rights and Citizenship, Justice and Public Security and the Presidency’s Secretariat for Social Communication (Secom) must participate in the meeting.
Last week, Meta announced a series of changes and the alignment of company policy with agenda government of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, who defends the deregulation of the digital environment and is against the fact-checking policy. Then, Meta released the possibility of prejudiced offenses on platforms.
Since 2016, Meta has offered a fact-checking service on Facebook and Instagram, carried out by journalists and experts in around 115 countries, which determined whether information circulating on the networks was true or false and offered contextualization to users.
With the end of fact-checking, Meta began adopting the “community notes” policy. As a result, only previously registered users can contest any information circulating on the platforms.
Experts in law and the digital environment warn that the change favors the free circulation of fake news – which is fraudulent news – and also encourages hate speech against minority groups such as women, immigrants and homosexuals.
Document from the Rights on the Network Coalition – which brings together more than 50 entities linked to the topic – states that the Meta attacks the democratic efforts of nations to protect populations against the damage caused by big tech. “With this, it prioritizes, once again, American interests and the profits of its corporation to the detriment of the construction of digital environments that value the safety of its consumers”, says the document.
The AGU minister, Jorge Messias, has defended actions by the Brazilian government that guarantee compliance with the country’s legislation in the face of changes to the Target. “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.
