Lula and ministers block critics, in contradiction with Fake News Bill – 05/06/2023 – Panel

The blocking of users on social networks, a practice that would be prohibited for authorities if the Fake News PL was approved, occurs between ministers and has already been used by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The Panel identified user blockings made by the president and at least five ministers on Twitter: Fernando Haddad (Finance), Márcio França (Ports), Silvio Almeida (Human Rights), Paulo Pimenta (Secom) and Flávio Dino (Justice).

The last two participate directly in the articulations for the approval of the bill.

The restriction on blocking by holders of mandates and members of the Executive was included in the report by federal deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP) as a counterpart to the demand of some deputies to maintain parliamentary immunity on social networks.

According to the proposal, the account must be considered of public interest and, therefore, must be accessible to any citizen. The proposal is supported by the government.

Through the text, whose voting was postponed last week, the political agent must indicate which profile officially represents his position or mandate.

But even personal accounts can be covered by the rule if they have a predominance of content related to the position.

Flávio Dino, who has already blocked deputies Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ), Marcos Feliciano (PL-SP) and Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), replied to the Panel that his profile is personal and was created in 2009.

The minister divulges daily the activities of the folder he commands in this account. “The blockades, carried out over many years, derive exclusively from the identification of personal aggressions, moral offenses or professional dissemination of fake news”, he said in a note.

Through Secom, Lula declared that the profiles were blocked before taking office as president and due to offenses, lying or defamatory speech. “It should be noted that the president will always follow current legislation,” he added. The Panel identified at least two cases, however, of people who said in 2023 that they had been blocked.

Paulo Pimenta said he only blocked profiles identified as robots or disseminators of criminal content and said that any citizen with criticism who wants to dialogue will be welcome.

França’s advisory said “the right to free demonstration is full, however, incompatible with any expression of hatred, violence or threat, indications that represent crimes in Brazilian legislation”. Almeida and Haddad did not respond.

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