STF makes it clear that it will not wait for Congress to regulate social networks

The constitutional lawyer specializing in Freedom of Expression, André Marsiglia, said that the Federal Supreme Court (STF) made it clear that it will not wait for a decision from the National Congress to regulate social networks.

This Tuesday (9), the STF minister, Dias Toffoli, stated that the issue will be discussed in the Supreme Court until the end of June this year.

Toffoli is the rapporteur of one of the two actions being processed in the Court with the imposition of some rules for regulating social networks.

The president of the STF, minister Luís Roberto Barroso, has already signaled that he intends to start the trial as soon as Toffoli releases the action.

“With this, the STF exposes the cards that are on the table: 1) Announcing judgment in 2 months, it makes it clear that it will not wait for in-depth debates from Congress and working groups. 2) By putting pressure on parliament, the STF shows that it will regulate in its own way, if in Congress the vote is rejected, postponed or voted in disagreement with the ministers’ wishes, which became explicit with the approval of TSE resolution 23.738/24 , practically reproducing the entirety of PL 2630/20, of fake news. In other words, it seems to me that the Court’s message is: approve it for you, so that we do not approve it for us, but according to our understanding of what a regulation should be”, wrote Marsiglia on his profile on the social network X, this Wednesday (10).

On Monday (8), one day before the STF’s announcement, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), stated that the regulation of social networks is “inevitable” and “is not censorship”.

The regulation of social networks has once again been considered amid the clash between Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), and Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

Pacheco also highlighted that, in the absence of legislation defined by Congress, the Judiciary ends up making decisions on the topic. Without citing Musk or Moraes directly, he stated that “platforms don’t always get it right, they don’t always get it wrong either, just like the Judiciary, which can eventually get it wrong.”