Influencer must pay R$12,000 in compensation to pastor for offense

The Court of Justice of Santa Catarina (TJ-SC) decided that an influencer must pay 12 thousand reais in compensation after accusing and offending a pastor on his channel on the YouTube platform. The judge of the 3rd Civil Court of Lages also ordered the video to be removed from the social network. The content had three million views until it was removed.

According to the TJ-SC, the video mentioned the pastor’s name in a pejorative, aggressive way and without evidence, facts that were possibly committed by the religious leader. Members of the pastor’s family were also offended. In the decision, the influencer was also warned that he would be subject to a daily fine if he included videos with similar content on the platform.

For the judge, freedom of expression must be used responsibly and the internet cannot be used to accuse and condemn people. The judge also compared offenses through social media with those carried out in person. “The message is stored for as long as the offender deems appropriate, and the offended party cannot do anything to stop the aggression immediately and effectively,” he wrote.

In the decision, he also highlighted that “if the man disagrees with certain attitudes of the author towards pastoral activity, he should make use of civilized, democratic and official tools and paths to claim the changes/punishments that he understands are due, as long as their consequences are proven. allegations.”