Elon Musk reacts with an exclamation about the Fake News PL – 04/26/2023 – Politics

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, spoke this Tuesday (25) about the Fake News Bill. On the same day, the Chamber of Deputies ignored the pressure from big techs and approved the urgency of the bill that regulates social networks and imposes sanctions on platforms that do not remove illicit content from the air within 24 hours of a court decision.

With an exclamation, the businessman reacted to a publication by federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), addressed to him, which states that the Chamber is about to expel social media platforms from the country.

“Freedom of expression is under severe attack. The Censorship Bill is sponsored by a member of the Communist party; we cannot let Brazil become China!”, continues the deputy’s message.

The urgency, approved on Tuesday by 238 to 192, accelerates the processing of the proposal and allows direct voting in plenary, without going through other committees. An agreement made at a meeting of party leaders provides that the merits of the text will be voted on next Tuesday (2).

The PL (bill) under discussion brings, among other points, a series of obligations to providers of social networks and messaging applications, such as content moderation.

Opponents of the government see censorship and claim that the PL will curtail freedom of expression.

The text’s rapporteur, Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP), met with party leaders to hear suggestions. He intends to present this Thursday (27) a new opinion with the accepted points.

“It is very important to have a rule to guarantee freedom of expression for everyone on the internet, freedom of expression being strengthened with the definition of a process that the user himself can challenge when he feels harmed”, he said.

One of the pending points of discussion involves the creation of a regulatory agency to supervise the platforms, which has been the target of criticism mainly from the opposition, who see the government trying to influence the content circulating on social networks.

The text says that the Executive may create an autonomous supervisory entity to regulate the project’s devices, monitor compliance with the rules, initiate administrative processes and, if obligations are not met, apply sanctions.

The report further stipulates that the material parliamentary immunity provided for in the Constitution also extends to social networks. In addition, it determines which accounts of presidents, governors, mayors, ministers, secretaries and other positions are considered to be of public interest.

From this, it prohibits the holders from restricting the visualization of their publications by other users.

According to the text, judicial decisions that determine the immediate removal of illicit content related to the commission of crimes referred to in the law must be complied with by providers within 24 hours, under penalty of a fine of between R$ 50 thousand and R$ 1 million per hour of noncompliance.

This Tuesday, the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) sent suggestions to the congressional summit to the Fake News bill, which include the immediate removal of content that poses a risk to information security and violates the rights of children and adolescents without the obligation that the user be notified of this.

The opposition criticizes the determination for providers to act “skilfully and diligently” when notified of potentially illegal content generated by third parties within the scope of their services, which constitute or incite crimes against the democratic rule of law and coup d’état, acts of terrorism and crimes against children and adolescents.

Voting on the project gained strength in the Lula government (PT) after the coup attacks on January 8 and especially after the attacks on schools in São Paulo and Blumenau (SC).

Also on Tuesday, before approval by the Chamber, representatives of big techs in Brazil had asked for the urgent regime to be rejected, while communications sector entities defended voting on the text on the grounds that it is already mature.

“It’s not true that the platforms don’t want regulation. But it doesn’t make sense, with that level of consequences, to rush to approve a proposal that has so much novelty and that has so much consequence for the digital ecosystem in Brazil”, said Mônica Guise, head of Meta’s public policies.

Alexandre Gibotti, executive director of Abap (Brazilian Association of Advertising Agencies), said that the text is one of “the most modern documents in the world” that could place the country “again in a leading position”.

Rodolfo Salema, director of Abert (Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters), said he recognizes that platforms moderate content, but that this proved to be not enough.

Marcelo Lacerda, Google’s director of government affairs and public policies, said that care must be taken when analyzing the bill so as not to “aggravate the problem of misinformation”.

Fernando Gallo, director of TikTok, said the platform proactively removed content in the 2022 election that violated the company’s misinformation policy and said she is in favor of regulation.