Moraes signs agreements with the TSE against fake electoral news – 04/03/2024 – Power

The president of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), Alexandre de Moraes, signed this Wednesday (3) technical cooperation agreements between a body created by the court, the Federal Police and the AGU (Advocacy General of the Union) to combat fake news during the election period.

The TSE body is called Ciedde (Integrated Center for Combating Misinformation and Defense of Democracy) and was launched last month amid attempts by the Judiciary to prevent so-called fake news from interfering in this year’s municipal election.

This body acts, according to the TSE itself, also to coerce hateful, discriminatory and anti-democratic speech.

When speaking at this Wednesday’s event, Moraes himself said that Ciedde even took down fake profiles from the organization itself.

“A false profile of Ciedde himself was set up, on several platforms, as if it were actually a website and, in the case of the ex-Twitter, an official profile,” said the minister.

Moraes classified disinformation as the “evil of the 21st century” and said that “combating disinformation in elections is nothing more than defending the voter’s vote.”

“Voters cannot be induced by fake news,” he stated. “It is not possible for social media to be used to brainwash voters with fake news.”

Previously, other bodies had already signed technical cooperation agreements with the TSE. Among them, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the Federal Public Ministry, the OAB and Anatel.

In addition to these public entities, Ciedde also aims to promote cooperation with social networks during the electoral period.

In February this year, the TSE had already defined the regulation of the use of artificial intelligence in electoral contexts and the absolute prohibition of the use of deepfake in electoral propaganda, already for the 2024 elections.

The TSE established that internet platforms will be jointly and severally responsible “civilly and administratively when they do not promote the immediate unavailability of content and accounts during the electoral period”.

“Undemocratic” posts that violate certain legislation, including the law on the democratic rule of law, must be immediately removed; “notoriously untrue or seriously decontextualized facts” about the electoral process, “serious threat, direct and immediate, of violence or incitement to violence” against members of the Judiciary”.

“Hateful behavior or speech,” including “racism, homophobia, Nazi, fascist or hateful ideologies” also needs to be removed; and “content manufactured or manipulated” by artificial intelligence without receiving the appropriate labels as required by the resolution.