Gilmar Mendes: Social networks act as courts – 03/13/2023 – Power

Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), said this Monday (13) that social networks should be held accountable for the content they make available because they already act as a kind of court when judging complaints from members and moderating content.

Mendes also questioned whether social networks can be considered private or public spaces.

“There is an ever-increasing understanding that participation in social media is an essential element for the exercise of individual freedoms. This diagnosis calls into question the extent to which social networks are truly private spaces or if they would be closer to public areas of circulation of content,” he said.

According to the minister, the platforms adopted constitutional jargon when formatting their internal regulations, which is why they also impose respect for other laws, such as the Penal Code.

“Digital platforms act as true courts, considering that they have the power to decide on the exclusion or maintenance of content and network participants, without any interference from an administrative or judicial body.”

“The demarcation of the illegality of an online content has a close relationship with the already existing criminal protection. The classification of crimes against the democratic rule of law is external and precedes any regulatory initiative. It is not a question of regulating this specifically for the internet.”

The speech took place during an event on the subject at FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas), in Rio de Janeiro.

The minister defended that the urgency of the issue requires that companies that refuse to debate the accountability of big techs should be excluded from the debate.

“It seems to me that the time has come to place a reservation on the positions of those who are not open to discussing new forms of responsibility for digital platforms. The conditions for the exercise of online democracy seem to be strongly dependent on the creation of positive, albeit procedural, duties for the functioning of the platforms.”