President of Google in Brazil says the company wants to avoid ‘perverse’ regulation – 06/27/2023 – Tech

The president of Google Brazil, Fabio Coelho, defended this Tuesday (27) a greater dialogue regarding the regulation of digital platforms in the country, stating that the company wants to avoid an “apparently good” legislation, but that could be ” perverse” for everyone.

In a press conference during the annual Google for Brazil event, the executive said that the company is not against the regulation of digital platforms and that it is in dialogue with the Brazilian authorities to discuss the issue, which is currently being addressed by the National Congress and the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

“Dialogue is to improve a regulation, so that it is not apparently good, but that could turn out to be perverse for everyone. That is our idea,” Coelho told journalists.

According to Coelho, the company is in discussions with the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), the rapporteur of the so-called Fake News PL, deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP), and the federal government for the establishment of a regulation that “is good for everyone”, without specifying what their demands would be or what they consider wrong in the proposal.

In April, Google, owned by Alphabet, launched a manifesto signed by the director of government relations and public policies at Google Brazil, Marcelo Lacerda, against the approval of a “hasty” legislation. The text says that the proposal could curtail fundamental rights and jeopardize freedom of expression.

Later, in the same month, the platform drew attention by displaying on the homepage of the Google search engine the call “The bill of fake news can worsen your internet”, which redirected to a text also signed by Lacerda, bringing numerous criticisms of the text. of Bill 2630.

The initiative led the company to become the target of an investigation at the STF opened by Minister Alexandre de Moraes after a request presented by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who questioned the conduct of companies in the discussion of the proposal being processed. at home.

The “PL das Fake News” proposes the regulation of digital platforms in the country. The text had the urgency regime approved in the Chamber in April, but was removed from the agenda in early May in the face of resistance from the plenary and amid public pressure from big techs against the proposal.

An excerpt under discussion in the STF provides that social networks can only be held responsible for user content if they fail to comply with a court order.

The subject has also generated repercussions in relation to the proposal for big techs to start paying media companies for publishing journalistic content on their pages, with similar processes being processed in other countries.

This Tuesday, Coelho highlighted the partnership program with journalistic vehicles Google Highlights as a positive point in the discussion.

“We are already starting from a very good point in this discussion of ‘publishers’ which are the 160 commercial agreements”, he said, referring to the partners of the program, launched in October 2020. “From there we can work to understand How do we make this relationship evolve?”