PL 2630: Postponing the vote is a victory for the extreme right – 05/02/2023 – Power

The postponement of the PL 2630 vote was a victory for the extreme right, evangelical parliamentarians and internet platforms. Until a few days ago, the government and many supporters of the internet regulation project were optimistic and calculated that there was a good chance that the law would pass.

But, after the platforms’ heavy campaign against the PL —as revealed by the Sheetwith the right to contrary links on the Google search engine homepage, emails to users and youtubers, alerts and contrary publicity—, allied to the strong mobilization of the opposition to the government, the scenario changed.

The campaign also had fake news spread by the Brazilian Chamber of the Digital Economy (camara-e.net), which represents Google, Meta, Twitter, TikTok and others.

As revealed by the Metrópoles portal, the entity distributed a document to evangelical parliamentarians that raised the possibility that the Fake News PL would censor posts of a religious nature and even verses from the Bible. Federal deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) spread the disinformation campaign on his social networks.

Far-right parliamentarians occupied social media, claiming that the project was the PL of Censorship, and that it would end freedom of expression in the country. Opposition parliamentarians were much more strident in their attacks on the bill than politicians from the governing base, who were much less emphatic in defending the PL.

With the Republicans disbanding, who stopped supporting the text, it was clear that the tide had turned. Even with the changes requested by the evangelicals –and accepted by the rapporteur Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP)— they did not budge.

Without getting enough support, Orlando Silva asked Arthur Lira (PP-AL) to remove the PL from the agenda.

To resurrect the regulation —return to the negotiating table to try to gather a sufficient number of votes— it will be necessary for the government to put a lot more effort into approving the project, with the distribution of positions and funds. The perception is that the project has been defended tooth and nail by the Ministry of Justice, but has not had adequate articulation with the Secretariat for Institutional Relations or the Civil House.

Part of the defenders of the text believe that it will be necessary to further weaken the articles that provide for the accountability of platforms for illegal third-party content. The theme was diluted in the Orlando report, with the introduction of a security protocol. But some defenders think it will be necessary to have an even lighter version of the text, more similar to the PL presented by Deputy Mendonça Filho (União Brasil-PE). That, more money and office, could convince Republicans and other recalcitrant lawmakers to support the bill, they reckon.

Government sectors, however, reject this idea of ​​mitigating the platforms’ liability regime in order to get some version of the text approved.

Despite all the mobilization of the opposition and platforms against the project, which led to the setback on Tuesday night (2), the law still has powerful allies. The Federal Supreme Court, mainly in the figures of ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Gilmar Mendes, will not easily give up on increasing the responsibility of internet platforms. And the mainstream media outlets, especially Globo, do not want to miss out on the perspective of remuneration for journalistic content and changes in digital advertising that are included in the project.