Big tech bench has structure and active deputies – 05/04/2023 – Power

The large technology companies have a team of deputies and senators who tend to align themselves with their interests in the Legislature. The so-called big tech bench has a fixed structure in Brasília and brings together about 20 active parliamentarians, who make up the so-called Digital Front.

The group is advised by the Cidadania Digital institute —which is funded by industry associations and was created in 2019, among other reasons, to help congressmen perform.

This model is similar to that of other parliamentary fronts, which also have institutes to advise parliamentarians and are funded by associations.

The bench has gained evidence in recent weeks due to the ongoing discussion of the Fake News PL in the Chamber. The front, made up mostly of right-wing deputies, has already been chaired by former deputies João Henrique Caldas (PL-AL) and Vinicius Poit (Novo-SP) and by deputy Luísa Canziani (PSD-PR). It is currently commanded by Lafayette de Andrada (Republicanos-MG).

Poit, by the way, was responsible for appointing the executive secretary of the institute, Felipe Melo França, as his advisor when he was in the Chamber.

Andrada claims that the front is in favor of regulating social networks, but says that the text proposed by the rapporteur, Deputy Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP), is bad and should not be approved.

“Technically it is badly written, it has open types, there are contradictions between the articles, it goes so far as to foresee a preventive fine. So, our defense is to improve the text, I think the text is not good”, he says.

According to him, the bench is not “representative of the big techs”. “The big techs help fund the institute that supports the front. But it’s not just them, all platforms, at all levels, participate in this funding, not just the companies responsible for social networks.”

Other deputies, such as Mendonça Filho (União Brasil-PE), Evair de Melo (PP-ES), Kim Kataguiri (União Brasil-SP), Adriana Ventura (Novo-SP), Alex Manente (Cidadania-SP) and Bandeira de Mello (PSB-RJ), in addition to Senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ), are part of the front.

Kataguiri says that he defends “that of the big techs that coincides with the public interest, which is freedom of expression, a moderation of content that actually gives results and does not make social networks unfeasible”.

He cites Fake News PL devices that he considers wrong. “If you keep, for example, the profiling article, which opens how the social network knows that that person likes a certain thing and then directs an ad, you are opening an industrial secret. It is as if you were giving Coca-Cola’s formula for the competitor,” he says.

For the deputy, the current text of the project creates unfair competition by determining co-responsibility for the networks in relation to advertising.

“The Consumer Defense Code says that the traditional press is not co-responsible if it has misleading advertising, but the PL brings this to social networks, and social networks have much less control because they have ads for R$ 15”, he says.

Evair de Melo, who is secretary general of the parliamentary front, says that the role of the group of parliamentarians is “to create a favorable environment for the digital world, to discuss the theme, to delve into the subject”.

“Brazil celebrates 5G today, which is a machine talking to a machine. What would be absurd here in this House would be, for example, the creation of a parliamentary front in defense of this text of the Fake News project. camera association working on a bill to ban phones that take pictures. It sounds absurd, but that’s what it has become,” he says.

Although it is made up mostly of right-wing deputies, the front tries to maintain an impartial image in relation to the government in order to face less political resistance in its agendas.

At the beginning of this year, the Instituto Cidadania Digital began to seek to assume the presidency a parliamentarian who did not participate in the government base, but who was not a radical opponent of the Executive or Bolsonarist.

The choice fell on Andrada for his knowledge of the area, his performance in the previous legislature on the parliamentary energy front and his conciliatory profile.

The Digital Citizenship institute defends the approval of a regulation for the internet, but says that the Fake News PL “had an opaque and tortuous procedure”.

“Our goal is to inform parliamentarians, gather inputs and motivate signatories to defend agendas that are relevant to society and the digital economy. It is important to highlight that they are autonomous and independent entities”, says the institute, in a note.

In addition to the parliamentarians who make up the front, there are deputies who are not officially part of the bench, but who also come out in defense of big techs on social networks and are contrary to the project being debated in the Chamber.

Former head of the Lava Jato task force at the Federal Public Ministry, deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR), who is in his first term, is one of them. He even listed the parliamentarians who voted in favor of the urgency in dealing with the matter.

“These are the federal deputies who did not vote for the urgency of the Censorship Bill. We are counting on their mobilization to ask them to vote no to the approval of this gag”, he said on social networks.

And he continued: “There will be a strong incentive for automated and massive deletion of legitimate content along with criminal content. The baby can be thrown out with the dirty bath water. It is necessary to fight fake news but to protect legitimate speech”.