Servers monitored Monark to identify TSE critics

Servers that are part of the Superior Electoral Court’s Special Advice on Combating Misinformation (AEED-TSE), a nucleus created at the beginning of last year within the highest body of Electoral Justice, monitored the podcast by influencer Monark to identify criticism of the TSE. The podcast host is a longtime critic of measures considered abusive by the electoral body and, especially, by the president of the TSE, Minister Alexandre de Moraes.

In Moraes’ decision this Wednesday (14), which censored all accounts on Monark’s social networks and video platforms, the minister stated that “The TSE’s Special Advisory Office for Combating Disinformation informs that, through research on open data from social media, detected a publication made by the influencer and podcaster ‘Monark’, on the digital platform Rumble, containing an interview with Federal Deputy FILIPE BARROS (PL-PR), in the wake of which false news is disseminated about the integrity of electoral institutions”.

The AEED-TSE, responsible for monitoring critics of the Electoral Justice, is part of the TSE’s Program to Combat Disinformation, created to combat content that, in the Court’s view, is classified as false in relation to the Electoral Justice.

Until last month, Eduardo Tagliaferro was in charge of the body, arrested red-handed in early May for domestic violence after firing a firearm inside the house, with his wife and underage daughters. Tagliaferro was Moraes’ trusted man, chosen by the minister for his “commitment to fighting false information about the electoral system”.

As the specialist in Constitutional Law Aécio Flávio Palmeira Fernandes explains, it is okay for the TSE to create a system or body to monitor irregularities related to the electoral process, but it is unconstitutional for the focus of this activity to be to censor content that displeases members of the Justice System. Electoral.

“When the agency notices irregular advertising, for example, it is acting within its functions. But this is not the case. The administrative function of the body is within the law, I don’t see a problem. What I see as problematic is the legal consequence behind this. Through this monitoring body, the TSE has censored publications, contrary to paragraph 2 of article 220 of the Constitution, which prohibits any and all censorship of a political, ideological and artistic nature”, says the jurist.

STF extended indefinitely the resolution that gave Moraes police power to censor opinions

What allows the president of the TSE to continue silencing profiles of critics of the Electoral Justice – and, in particular, critics of the conduct of Moraes himself – is the maintenance, by the Supreme Federal Court (STF), of the resolution that it extended indefinitely Moraes’ police power to “combat fake news” on its own initiative, without the need for a complaint.

The measure was valid only during the 2022 elections, with the alleged aim of avoiding misinformation during the electoral period. However, it remained in force, which has allowed the minister to continue censoring from common users to elected politicians. Social networks must comply with the blocking order within two hours under penalty of a fine of up to R$150,000.

It happens, however, that the mechanism has been used to silence opinions – these are not “fake news”, but personal views of users of social networks about the conduct of actors of the Electoral Justice – configuring restriction on freedom of expression.

In the recent case of the new censorship of Monark, Alexandre de Moraes said that the blocking of the channels is necessary and urgent to stop “speech with hateful content, subversion of order and incentives to break institutional and democratic normality”.

Despite this, the “problematic” excerpts from the podcast cited by Moraes bring only the presenter’s personal opinions on the conduct of the electoral process in Brazil. Look:

“Because he [Supremo] is willing to guarantee non-transparency in the elections? Do we see the TSE censoring people, do we see Alexandre de Moraes arresting people, do you see a lot of things happening, and at the same time they prevent the transparency of the polls? You become suspicious, what kind of trickery is happening at the polls there? Why? Why does our political system not want to let the Brazilian people have more security? What’s the interest? Manipulate the polls? Manipulate elections? That’s what I keep thinking…”

In the opinion of André Marsiglia, a constitutionalist lawyer specializing in freedom of expression and the press, the minister’s decision is based on the premise that the influencer’s channel broadcast false news about the Brazilian electoral process, while the excerpts from the conversations set out in the court decision bring only opinionated inquiries, not informative.

“There is an important difference, as opinions are not committed to the neutrality of information. Being one’s personal view, naturally, it is subjective. And it is not up to the State to say what opinion its individuals should have, under penalty of violating Article 37 of the Federal Constitution, which imposes on it the duty of impersonality”, explains the jurist.

“Obviously, this does not give anyone carte blanche to commit crimes, but it cannot be considered disinformation, as the decision does. There is, therefore, a technical inaccuracy in the main basis of the decision, in my opinion, ”she adds.

Marsiglia also emphasizes the wide nature of the TSE president’s decision that, instead of suspending only the video with the speeches considered illicit, blocked all the channels of the author of the speech. “Apart from the inaccuracies, the disproportionality of punishments involving freedom of expression always ends in censorship”, he reinforces.