Cancellation cartel could be convicted of defamation, say legal experts

The companies, channels and influencers led by the Mynd8 agency, owned by CEO Fátima Pissarra – which form the cancellation cartel revealed by YouTuber Daniel Penin – may have their actions included in the crime of defamation, but are unlikely to be convicted of inducing suicide. This is the view of jurists consulted by People’s Gazette.

The group was responsible for the psychological harassment that encouraged 22-year-old Jéssica Canedo to kill herself on December 22nd. Choquei, which has tens of millions of followers on social media and is the most influential channel in the cancellation cartel, has already admitted to having replicated false content about supposed conversations that indicated involvement between Jéssica and influencer Whindersson Nunes – a fact that triggered the suicide of the young woman. The person responsible for Choquei, Raphael Sousa, gave a statement to the Civil Police of Minas Gerais on December 28th.

Jurists consider it indisputable that there are sufficient reasons to classify some members of the cancellation cartel in the crime of defamation. “As for defamation, there is no doubt”, says Rodrigo Marinho, master in Constitutional Law from the University of Fortaleza (Unifor). “And the crime may have its sentence increased due to the fact that it occurred with criminal association”, he adds.

For João Rezende, a criminal lawyer, the crime of defamation “is very clear”. He emphasizes, however, that those responsible are unlikely to be arrested for this. The penalty for this crime is imprisonment for three months to one year and a fine. As the expected period of detention is very short, these sentences would probably be converted into community service provision.

In relation to the crime of inducing suicide, on the other hand, jurists consider a conviction to be unlikely, as it is not enough to indirectly influence a suicide for someone to be included in this criminal type – a clear and intentional action to take the person to kill himself, which probably did not happen in this case.

“It needs to be something very concrete, like in a case where someone knows that the victim is shaken and encourages him to kill himself. The person who commits the crime of inducing, instigating or assisting suicide needs to know the condition in which the victim is encounters, to consider taking one’s own life. There needs to be this awareness for the intention to be configured”, says Rezende.

Marinho highlights that it is necessary to be careful so that the case of the cancellation cartel does not serve as a starting point for the opposition to be more conniving with the censorious nature of Bill 2630/2020 – the Censorship PL or Fake News PL. He highlights that “the Marco Civil da Internet could already determine the removal of posts” about Jéssica.

STF is silent on a case similar to the digital militia investigation

On social media, many right-wing influencers have criticized the silence of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in relation to the Mynd case; Since 2021, the Court has extended investigation 4,874, known as the digital militia investigation, which is confidential and, according to the STF, investigates the existence of “a criminal organization, with strong digital activity, which would be articulated in different nuclei – political, production, publication and financing -, with the purpose of attacking democracy and the Democratic Rule of Law”.

The political action of the cancellation cartel has become evident with the informal investigation of several social media users, such as the YouTuber Daniel Penin himself and the journalist Rodrigo da Silva, who made a series of tweets on the subject. During the elections, several of the group’s profiles openly campaigned for Lula’s election. Recently, Choquei used Twitter to congratulate Flávio Dino on his appointment as Supreme Court minister.

For Marinho, the STF’s double standard is evident. “Mynd, in theory, could be part of the digital militia investigation,” he says. “In my view, there is no crime in several people coming together to defend a certain political point of view. Nothing wrong with that. But, from Alexandre de Moraes’ perspective, it was supposed to be part of his investigation.”

The jurist highlights that there is neither a defined crime nor competence to justify a STF investigation into the matter. “I never understood what type of criminal offense is used to investigate these digital militias,” he says.

“It is not the jurisdiction of the Federal Supreme Court neither the first case, in relation to Bolsonaro’s supporters, nor the second case [do cartel do cancelamento]. Unless it was a federal deputy, a senator, a minister of state, but, so far, it’s nothing like that”, criticizes Marinho, recalling that journalists such as Allan dos Santos and Oswaldo Eustáquio are being investigated. Until now, No journalist from the cancellation cartel was mentioned by the Supreme Court in investigations.