Fake news bill vote causes rift within the Chamber

The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), intends to keep the urgency requirement of the PL of fake news even in the face of pressure from various leaders of the House. Lira’s expectation is that the application will be approved next Wednesday (26) and then the report presented by deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP) will be voted on by the deputies.

Lira’s movement occurs even in the face of pressure from the deputies for the matter to be analyzed by a special commission before being taken to the plenary. The movement caused a split in the Chamber and even divided parties in the base of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), such as PSOL and PDT, for example.

Last week, Deputy Orlando Silva met with several benches in order to reduce resistance to the project. Despite this, parties such as União Brasil, for example, remained divided over the proposal. Leader of the acronym, Deputy Elmar Nascimento (BA), indicated to his peers that given the impasse, the issue will need to be resolved through a vote in plenary.

Bolsonaro’s party tries to postpone voting on the PL of fake news

A member of the União Brasil bench, deputy Mendonça Filho (PE) collected until this Monday (24th) at least 105 signatures for a request for the creation of a special commission to deal with the PL of fake news. Of the total, 52 are from the PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, 17 from União Brasil and ten from Progressistas, Lira’s acronym. Deputies from eight other parties, such as Republicans, PSD, Podemos and Novo, also ask for the installation of the collegiate.

“I understand that this proposal is very important and I am not here wanting to postpone or postpone it for eternity. I believe that 90 days or 60 days would be a reasonable period for us to be able, within the scope of a special commission, to have a proposal that represents the average of the thinking of the Brazilian people”, defended Mendonça Filho.

Still according to the parliamentarian, the proposal under discussion may lead to censorship on social networks. “I even ask a question: was there an impeachment or was there a coup? It will be classified as an impeachment or coup according to the law of fake news? Those who today want this legislation, which, in my opinion, could lead to censorship, tomorrow may be embittering the poison of this bill itself”, completes the deputy.

For the urgent request to be approved, 257 votes from the deputies are required. In April last year, a request to accelerate the appreciation of the text was defeated after receiving only 249 votes in favor.

A member of the Novo bench, deputy Marcel van Hattem (RS) even defended that, if the urgency request is again defeated, Lira installs the special commission. The mayor, however, did not commit to the agreement.

Leader of Novo in the Chamber, deputy Adriana Ventura (SP), evaluates the PL of fake news as the “PL of censorship”. “They want to take away our freedom. They want to censor what is true or not and they want to silence our voice. And they don’t just want to silence our voice as parliamentarians, but also that of every Brazilian citizen. give an answer to that”, evaluated Ventura.

Government base parties defend the installation of the special commission

Despite the support of the Planalto Palace, government base parties also reinforced the movement within the Chamber so that the PL of fake news be discussed in a special commission. Like Mendonça Filho, deputies Marcos Tavares (PDT-RJ) and Professor Luciene Cavalcante (PSOL-SP) are authors of requests for the creation of the collegiate.

The pedetista, for example, claims that the proposal presents a risk of embedding censorship and mass surveillance of data. The PSOL deputy argues that the PL requires a deeper discussion on the part of governments, technology companies, civil society and users. In addition, the MDB presented a fourth request to request the installation of the special commission.

The bill of fake news was presented by senator Alessandro Vieira (PSDB-SE) and approved by the Senate in 2020. Now, Orlando Silva has included a suggestion by the Lula government that platforms are required to handle “critical content”.

Companies, according to the text, would need to act preventively on anything that might stimulate or disseminate crimes of violent abolition of the Democratic State of Law, coup d’état, acts of terrorism and crimes against children and adolescents.

In addition, the rapporteur accepted the Lula government’s suggestion for the Executive Branch to create an autonomous supervisory entity to regulate and supervise internet providers. The agency could also “initiate administrative proceedings and, once the platform has failed to comply with the obligations of this law, apply the appropriate sanctions”.

For the leader of the government in the Chamber, deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), deputies need to give an “answer” to the propagators of fake news. “Many of us are also victims of the web of fake news heralded across the country. That’s why we have to vote on the bill of fake news to punish these people”, defended the petista.

Despite the division within the governing base, PT members assess that the scenario is favorable for the approval of the urgent request. “No one can do everything that some want, in the name of such freedom of expression, to sponsor all kinds of roguery against the Brazilian democratic order”, added Guimarães.

Companies press for the postponement of the vote on the PL of fake news

On another front, at least three companies representing the technology sector, such as Meta, Twitter, Google and TikTok, released an open letter defending the installation of the special commission. To the big techs defended that “technology regulation efforts are welcome” and stated that they want to “be part of the construction of legislation that responds in an efficient and balanced way to public challenges”.

Still according to the companies, although the PL has been going through Congress for three years, “it is the result of a tortuous and closed process”. Along the same lines, Google also argued that the project cannot be voted on as a matter of urgency “without society having the necessary time to debate the topic in depth”.

According to Google, the text of the proposal presents risks for the digital ad ecosystem and for platforms to be able to apply their policies, as provided for in the Civil Rights Framework. In addition, the platform claims that hasty legislation can worsen the functioning of the internet, curtail fundamental rights, favor certain groups or sectors of the economy and create mechanisms that jeopardize legitimate speeches and freedom of expression.

Deputy Orlando Silva, however, stated that the PL, which has been waiting for a vote since 2020, should hold social networks accountable when the fake news are boosted. This occurs when the creator pays the platform to forward the content to more users.

“One of the themes that are consolidated concerns the responsibility of digital platforms when there is sponsorship, when there is payment to carry a certain message [falsa] farther than it would go without boost,” he explained in an interview with GloboNews.