“The time when the internet could be free is behind us”

The minister and future president of the STF, Luís Roberto Barroso, said that “the time when it was imagined that the internet could be free, open and unregulated is behind us”. Barroso also stated that “there is a false discussion about whether the internet should be regulated or not”. He blamed polarization for the lack of consensus, since, according to him, some type of regularization is necessary.

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“Disinformation in hate speech, assassination of reputations and conspiracy theories circulating on the internet and social media have become serious threats to democracy and fundamental rights”, commented the minister. He concluded by saying that “fake news has been used as an instrument for political extremism, intensifying polarization, fomenting intolerance and, ultimately, violence.”

For him, the internet needs to be regulated in different dimensions: economic, privacy protection and control over “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and “illegal or socially serious content”. The inauthentic behavior cited by the minister involves the use of automatic mechanisms to give more visibility to publications, which, according to him, become more dangerous the more they are accessed.

Luís Roberto Barroso opened the first panel of the Seminar Combating Disinformation and Defense of Democracy, organized by the Federal Supreme Court, which took place this Thursday (14). The event takes place simultaneously with the second day of the trial of the defendants of the acts of January 8th.