PL 2630 must be sliced ​​in the Chamber; regulation loses strength – 05/16/2023 – Power

Party leaders in the Chamber closed an agreement to vote this Wednesday (16) on an urgent request for the project that deals with the payment of copyrights to artists.

In practice, this will mean slicing the Fake News PL, which also deals with the regulation of big techs.

The parliamentarians still articulate the inclusion, in the copyright text, of devices on remuneration to journalism companies, which displeases government supporters.

Planalto Palace allies fear that the division of PL 2630, reported by Deputy Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP), will take strength from the original project and that the regulation of big techs will not advance this semester.

According to leaders, depending on the urgency voting score (which deals only with the processing rite, to exclude the requirement to go through other commissions), the merit of the copyright proposal could be analyzed in the same session. Most likely, however, it will be next week.

The initial prediction was that the urgency of the text, authored by Deputy Jandira Feghali (PC do B-RJ), would be appreciated on the last 9th, but divergences within the government itself postponed the vote on the request.

With the approval of the urgency, the proposal can go straight to a vote in plenary. The rapporteur will be the leader of União Brasil in the Chamber, Elmar Nascimento (BA), an ally of the president of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

Despite resistance from government supporters, leaders articulated including in Jandira’s text the part referring to remuneration for journalistic content.

There are disagreements between the communication vehicles about the form of remuneration for journalistic content provided for in the Fake News PL. Entities such as Abert (Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters), Aner (National Association of Magazine Editors) and ANJ (National Association of Newspapers), which brings together the main media outlets, including Sheet, defend the bill; Smaller vehicles fear losing funding because they have less bargaining power.

Jandira Feghali’s PL deals only with remuneration to artists by way of copyright. If there is an agreement, the obligation of platforms to pay for journalistic content produced by communication companies will be added by Elmar Nascimento.

The Fake News PL was approved by the Senate in 2020 and, if it passes through the House now, it will return to the final word of the senators. The proposal was scheduled for voting in early May, but Orlando Silva asked that it be removed from the agenda due to the risk of defeat in plenary.

According to leaders, the vote on the part of the text that deals with the regulation of big techs is still uncertain. Some estimate that this should only occur after the assessment of the fiscal framework. Others do not see the political climate for the issue to advance this semester.

With Congress pressured to act after the coup acts on January 8 and the attacks on schools, the Chamber of Deputies accelerated the processing of the project and approved the PL’s emergency regime by 238 votes to 192 on April 25.

Resistance to the proposal was led by big techs, Bolsonarists and the evangelical bench in Congress.

The text currently under discussion brings together contributions from the proposal approved by the Senate and changes incorporated by the rapporteur in the Chamber.

Among the main points of the proposal approved in the Senate are the duty of platforms to veto inauthentic accounts, the mandatory disclosure of quarterly transparency reports on content moderation, the possibility for providers to create a self-regulation institution and a fine of up to 10% of the billing of the economic group in Brazil in case of non-compliance with the law.

In the Chamber, the rapporteur included, among other points, punishment of big techs for content that violates the Democratic State Law, civil liability of platforms for any boosted or monetized content and transparency of content recommendation algorithms.

To overcome resistance in the Chamber, the rapporteur removed from the text the creation of a regulatory agency to supervise the platforms and made explicit the free exercise of religious cults and the “full exposure” of their dogmas and sacred books. This was not enough, however, to overcome opposition to the measure.