PGR asks for investigation of Google and Telegram for campaigns against PL of fake News

A The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) this Thursday (11) to open an investigation into the directors of Google and Telegram for the campaigns against the so-called Fake News PL. The case must be decided by Minister Alexandre de Moraes.

O request is signed by the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Lindôra Araújo. She suggests as first measures the subpoena of company executives and an expertise in all publications against the bill driven by the initiative of the platforms themselves.

“The narrated factual scenario points to the existence of elements of minimum information on the practice of criminal conduct that support the possibility of opening an investigation procedure under the supervision of the Federal Supreme Court”, says the document.

Google displayed on its home page, for all users, an alert message against the PL. Internet users who clicked on the link were directed to an opinion article by the Director of Government Relations and Public Policy at Google Brazil, Marcelo Lacerda, who accused the text of ‘increasing confusion between what is true and false in Brazil’.

The message was removed after the Ministry of Justice announced that it would investigate whether large technology companies misused economic power to skew the debate around the bill.

Telegram also joined the campaign and launched a manifesto criticizing the PL. The message calls the proposal ‘unnecessary’ and says it ‘grant censorship powers to the government’. The platform backed down and published a retraction after the STF threatened to suspend the app’s operations in Brazil.

The PGR triggered the Supreme Court based on a crime report by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who postponed the vote on the bill. He accused the platforms of operating a ‘nasty campaign of disinformation, manipulation and intimidation, taking advantage of their hegemonic position’.