10 reasons that make Flávio Dino a risk to freedom of expression

The indication of Flavio Dino for the Federal Supreme Court (STF) must be submitted to a secret vote in the Senate Plenary, this Wednesday (13). Its probable approval becomes a risk to the free expression of thought in Brazil, according to experts. “Not only to free expression, but to democracy itself”, warns lawyer and former state deputy for São Paulo, Janaína Paschoal.

In 2023, heading the Ministry of Justice, Dino sued influencers and opposition parliamentarians for questioning, spoke several times of his intention to regulate the use of the internet to contain speeches he considered “anti-democratic” and blocked public figures on social media so that do not have access to information about it. “I didn’t even follow him myself and I was blocked”, says Janaina, who discovered the fact in March 2023.

Dino also defends severe punishments for those who organize or finance what the government calls “movements against democracy” and has already presented President Lula with a project with penalties ranging from six to 20 years in prison for organizers and financiers of these demonstrations. “It should be called the ‘leftist and judicial dictatorship package’”, criticized deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ).

Furthermore, the Minister of Justice and Public Security openly presents himself as a communist, in reference to an ideology that killed millions of people through hunger, beatings or excessive work, and became known around the world for its censorship of freedoms of expression, press and religious.

“So much so that all historical examples of communist nations are dictatorships, in which the individual cannot even contest the regime under which they live”, points out jurist Fabricio Rebelo, citing that Flávio Dino was already emphatic when saying that “freedom of expression as an absolute value ended in Brazil”.

Check out the list of 10 reasons why Flavio Dino a risk to free thought in the country if his entry into the STF is approved by the senators this week.

1. Flavio Dino defends internet regulation to contain “hateful and anti-democratic speech”

In January of this year, the minister delivered to President Lula the so-called “Democracy Package”, which proposed punishments for what is considered a crime against the Democratic Rule of Law and included the regulation of social networks and the internet, criminalizing content considered as “anti-democratic”.

He also stated during the Congress of the National Union of Students (UNE), in July, that it is necessary to regulate social networks because the platforms are used to disseminate “right-wing ideas and economic power”.

According to experts, the proposals supported by Dino can be used to silence voices against the government, going against the regulations implemented in democracies.

2. Dino is one of the main supporters of the Law to Combat “Fake News”, which limits freedom of expression on social networks

Flávio Dino defended the so-called Fake News PL, also known as the Censorship PL. The text, which ended up not being voted on and was later cut up, received criticism for its power to provoke self-censorship on the networks and for not being widely debated within society.

In August, during a hearing held by the Senate’s Communications and Digital Law Committee, Flavio Dino praised the bill, calling for a speedy vote.

3. As minister, he restricted Google’s opinion regarding the Fake News Law

In May this year, the Ministry of Justice led by Flávio Dino announced a precautionary measure against Google, after the technology company released a text criticizing the Fake News PL.

The content had been published on the company’s official blog and explained that approval of the project could harm freedom of expression, favor producers of fake news and put the distribution of free content over the internet at risk.

The government — through the Ministry of Justice and the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) — determined a fine in the amount of R$1 million per hour in case of non-compliance with the precautionary measure by Google. Shortly after the notification, the text was taken down.

4. In a meeting with representatives of Big Techs, Flávio Dino threatened companies that did not change their “terms of use”

The newspaper Metrópoles released a video of a meeting held in April between Flávio Dino and representatives from Twitter, Meta, TikTok, Kwai, WhatsApp, Google and YouTube in which the minister imposed changes to the content monitoring rules. “If you don’t change the terms of use, you will be forced,” said Dino.

“In the grammar of the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Police, which I command, there is no expression ‘terms of use’”, he continued. So, “anyone who opposes this idea of ​​collaboration is exposing themselves so that we can adopt measures”, he stated, also mentioning that Big Techs could be investigated by the Federal Police and become “defendants”.

“It would be embarrassing for us to have to resort to coercive mechanisms”, he pointed out. At the time, the meeting dealt with posts from social media users referring to attacks on schools.

5. Flávio Dino said that “the time for freedom of expression is over in Brazil, it has been buried”.

In the same meeting with representatives of the largest social networks in the country, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, stated that “the time of self-regulation in Brazil, the absence of regulation and freedom of expression as an absolute value” is over. According to him, these terms were “buried”. The minister also said that freedom of expression, in fact, would be a “scam”.

Given these statements, jurist Fabricio Rebelo guarantees that it will be difficult to find a name that brings more risk to freedom of expression than that of the current Minister of Justice and that “the times to come tend to be darker if this stance is transferred to his judicial performance ”.

6. Said that the “2022 electoral process was the reference”

In the video of the meeting between Flávio Dino and representatives of Big Techs, the minister of justice also cited the 2022 electoral process in Brazil as a “reference” for processing information in Brazil. “That’s what we’ll do with you, gentlemen, be clear about that”, pointed out the minister.

During the period he mentioned, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) began to criminalize content considered by the Court’s ministers as “disinformation”, mainly in relation to the electoral election, and both citizens and political authorities had their social media accounts taken down.

Furthermore, journalists such as Guilherme Fiuza, Paulo Figueiredo and Rodrigo Constantino were also targets of actions ordered by Minister Alexandre de Moraes after criticizing the electoral process. Lawyers still had difficulty accessing the files and having a broad right to defense, as the documents were confidential.

Even reports and posts published by media outlets were taken down, as happened with Gazeta do Povo when it reported the support given by Lula to President Daniel Ortega, who has governed Nicaragua since 2007 and persecuted his opponents.

7. Dino sued Monark for being called “fat”

The minister of justice sued influencer Bruno Monteiro Aiub, known as Monark, for slander, defamation and crime against honor after being insulted by his obesity during a live broadcast held in May this year on the Rumble platform.

At the time, Monark would have referred to Dino with words like “gordola”, and the minister spoke out on Twitter about the case. “As for the criminals who offend my honor, I trust the Judiciary, to whom I hand over such cases”, he wrote on his networks.

After the post, Flávio Dino filed a criminal complaint against the influencer, which was validated by the Federal Court of São Paulo in September. Monark called the case “political persecution.”

8. Dino blocks opposition journalists and parliamentarians on social media

“Flávio Dino does not like to be questioned or contradicted, a behavior that is not consistent with a public authority, especially in the highest Court of National Justice”, says lawyer and former state deputy for São Paulo, Janaína Paschoal, who was a of public figures blocked by Dino on the networks.

For federal deputy Marcel van Hattem (Novo-RS), the attitude of blocking opponents on platforms such as Twitter goes against the principle of transparency of public authorities. “By denying the opposition the possibility of knowing what he says on his Twitter [agora X]demonstrates that he has an aversion to the opposition’s actions and, as a minister of the STF, this, without a doubt, tends to be accentuated”, says the parliamentarian.

9. Flávio Dino sued former deputy Deltan Dallagnol for questioning

The minister has also sued parliamentarians such as former federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol for questioning. “I was sued by Dino at the STF, who asked Minister Alexandre de Moraes to include me in the fake news investigation after I questioned how Dino entered Complexo da Maré without making an agreement with organized crime”, says Dallagnol, also pointing out that the Minister of Justice and Public Security is “active in initiating investigations against political opponents”.

10. Dino claims to be a “communist, thank God”, referring to an ideology that opposes freedom of expression

During a program recorded by the independent journalism channel MyNews, in 2019, when Flávio Dino was still governor of Maranhão, he stated that he was “a communist, thank God”. During the interview, he said that there are billions of communists in China and quoted a phrase from Chinese dictator Xi Junping.

However, when asked about communist countries like China, a dictatorship without an independent judiciary, Flávio Dino stated that he did not know what the Chinese regime was like. “I really don’t know”, he replied, pointing out that the Judiciary in Brazil is not independent and that he defended “the non-partisanship of the Judiciary, as happened in Brazil”.

During the interview, Dino also stated that the communist state has a “regulatory” role and that the name communism is “beautiful” and “poetic”, stating that “communism is communion”. However, history shows that this ideology killed millions of people — more than the Holocaust — in regimes such as Stalin’s Soviet regime and Mao Zedong’s Chinese regime, in addition to censoring freedoms of the press, expression and religious freedom.

“It is extremely problematic that a nominee for the STF, responsible for protecting fundamental rights of citizens — such as life, liberty, private property and freedom of expression and the press — claims to be a proud communist”, warns former deputy Deltan Dallagnol. “An ideology that simply does not accept the free expression of thought”, adds jurist Fabricio Rebelo.