rapporteur says that regulatory body is the only impasse

Deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP), rapporteur for the so-called “PL das Fake News”, said, this Monday morning (24), that the agenda should have advances as soon as the parliamentary recess returns, on August 1, and that the only major pending issue is the definition of which will be the body responsible for overseeing the application of the law and, eventually, applying sanctions to the platforms.

The numerous questions about the appointment of a body linked to the Lula government to oversee compliance with the regulation of social networks were one of the points that led the Fake News PL, whose vote was initially scheduled for May 2, to be removed from the agenda. In the last version, the text predicted that the federal government would create an autonomous supervisory entity, which the opposition saw as subject to a high risk of government interference and possible action by the agency as a censor.

The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), linked to the government, is one of the main ones considered by Silva to be appointed in the new version of the text as the regulatory body. However, on the debate table, there is a suggestion by the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) for the creation of the so-called “Digital Policy Council (CPD) to supervise the application of the provisions of the text.

In addition to representatives of the OAB itself, the group would be composed of members appointed by the Three Powers and representatives of Anatel, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) and the National Data Protection Agency (ANPD). According to the OAB proposal, the council could impose fines on the platforms if it considered that the companies’ actions were not adequate, for example, in relation to the removal of content considered uninformative.

“Right now, what remains to be decided is just one item: what is the law’s supervisory structure. In our opinion, it is necessary to have an administrative structure to read the transparency reports (produced by the platforms); to assess whether the systemic risk has been checked; whether risk mitigation measures have been applied; whether the duty of care has been properly fulfilled ”, said Orlando Silva in a live promoted by The globe and by Economic value.

For the deputy, already in the beginning of August there should be meetings of the college of leaders of the Chamber on the theme. “I believe that in the next meetings with Arthur [Lira, presidente da Câmara] and leaders we should hit the hammer on what is the path”, he said.

The parliamentarian took the opportunity to classify the questions about possible censorship actions by the supervisory body as “fake news” and took the opportunity to link questions about the constitutionality of the measure to the “extreme right”. “What we want is to have an agile and modern instrument that can supervise the application of the law. In Brazil, the extreme right has an anti-regulatory and ostensible attitude, acting towards a brutal obstruction”, he continued.