Moraes wants to combat “misinformation” with “repression”

Minister Alexandre de Moraes said that the Judiciary has started to learn how to combat disinformation, but that it is “far from what was expected”. For him, young and old need more “traditional media” and it is necessary to invest in education, prevention and repression. The speech took place at the opening of the Seminar Combating Disinformation and Defense of Democracy, this Thursday morning (14), organized by the Federal Supreme Court.

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Throughout his speech, Moraes insisted on the need for the Judiciary to act on these three fronts in the fight against disinformation. Education should focus, especially, on young people and the elderly. For the minister, the “traditional media” has an important role for young and old people to be able to differentiate serious and responsible opinions from the opinions of “internet experts”.

Another action, according to the minister, is prevention. “Big techs cannot continue to be immune from responsibility for the chain of disinformation that they end up spreading and attacking democracy”, reiterates Moraes when emphasizing the need for the National Congress to approve a project that regulates social networks. According to Moraes, it is also necessary to change self-regulation mechanisms.

“If education didn’t work and prevention failed: repression.” Moraes said that the reprimand needs to happen in a “more modern way” and cites the time that the Judiciary took down content during the electoral campaign period. If the Electoral Court previously took 24 to 48 hours to remove content, it now takes 15 minutes to remove publications on election day, he said.