Anatel says it can inspect big techs without new costs – 05/02/2023 – Panel

The president of Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency), Carlos Baigorri, says that the agency is in a position to become the supervisory body for social networks in up to four months without the need to increase the budget or increase the number of servers.

According to him, the only necessary measure would be to expand its advisory board to include digital platforms and other sectors of society affected by the issue, such as the Judiciary.

Today there is already representation from the National Congress, telecommunications operators, users and civil society in the instance.

For Baigorri, this is the best alternative to give effect to the Fake News PL if it is approved by the National Congress.

Creating a new oversight body, he argues, could take years and, in the end, have an outdated law to implement. He cites as an example the ANPD (National Data Protection Authority) which has been canceling meetings due to lack of subject matter, as shown by the Panel.

“Here we already have all this operational running, capable of inspecting, applying sanctions, registering in overdue debt… There are 1,300 servers already working”, he exemplifies.

“Approving urgently because the issue is urgent, but leaving it to become effective in three years, seems inconsistent to me. It is not a text published in the Federal Official Gazette that will change reality; it is the State that will guarantee its effectiveness by enforcing the norm.

In addition, the president of Anatel believes that society already sees in the agency this supervisory role, in view of the performance in related themes.

“When Dona Maria has WhatsApp cloned, she calls Anatel here to ask for help. In the same way, the [presidente do TSE] Alexandre de Moraes, when he needed to take Telegram and fake news sites off the air, he sent them to me. From Dona Maria to Alexandre de Moraes, society sees Anatel as the responsible body for taking care of these issues.”

Although he openly defends the agency’s actions, Baigorri said that he will not face the National Congress. According to him, the decision is up to the parliamentarians and will be respected, whatever it is.

To overcome resistance among parliamentarians, the rapporteur for the Fake News PL, Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP), removed from the text the creation of a regulatory agency to supervise platforms.

The Fake News PL was scheduled to be analyzed this Tuesday (2) in the Chamber of Deputies, but leaders in Congress and members of the government recognize the difficulties and the appreciation may be postponed.

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