Dino presents package against anti-democratic acts and proposes to create National Guard

The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino (PSB), presented this Thursday to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) a package of legislative proposals to toughen the punishments and the siege of coup plotters who attacked the democratic state of law, in a movement in response to the attacks carried out by extremists in Brasília on January 8th. In the list of measures organized by the Ministry is the creation of a National Guard to protect public buildings in the federal capital.

The package also contains a proposal for a Provisional Measure that intends to require digital platforms to create more rigorous mechanisms for monitoring and removing publications that attack democracy. The proposal to suppress content from social networks has been defended by the Lula government and has generated controversy due to fears that the measure could be used as a form of censorship.

“I was with the President of the Republic, I gave him a brief summary of the projects that we are debating within the scope of the democracy package. fate of these projects that were elaborated in the Ministry of Justice”, said Dino. The information is from the State Agency.

The measures suggested by Dino need Lula’s endorsement to be sent to Congress, where they should be discussed in the form of a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC), a Provisional Measure (MP) and two bills (PLs). The minister named the set of proposals the “democracy package”.

The proposal that requires more effort from the government is precisely the creation of the National Guard through a PEC. The body will be responsible for the ostensible protection of the buildings of the Three Powers and for the containment of demonstrations and attacks against the institutions.

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) wants to force digital platforms to remove from the air content framed in crimes against democracy and terrorism. The deadline is two hours, the same used in the 2022 campaign by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to overthrow misinformation and fake news.

The government’s proposals are launched without a definition in the law regarding the concepts of disinformation and fake news. The Chamber of Deputies even analyzed, but did not vote, in the last legislature, the fake news bill. The idea of ​​removing content from social networks has been criticized due to the fear that it could come to be configured as censorship and there is no clarity on what should be considered false information.

The idea of ​​suppression of content appears in the draft of a Provisional Measure, prepared by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, and presented this Thursday to the president. The minister’s idea is to create compulsory legal obligations for Big Techs, when crimes against the Democratic State of Law or terrorism are committed, in virtual environments. For Dino, companies should be responsible for preventing the preparation and commission of crimes and for removing content from the air, following a court order. In case of non-compliance, the government suggests that digital platforms be fined.

The minister stated that the suggestion would be to apply virtually what is already valid in practice on the streets. “We have to look for symmetry, the logical congruence between streets and networks. What cannot be done on the streets, cannot be used on networks.”