Brazil’s Supreme Court today authorized an investigation into the country’s directors of Google and Telegram, given suspicions of running an “abusive” campaign against an online disinformation bill.
The decision of Magistrate Alexandre de Moraes, in charge of the case at the Supreme Court, granted the request of the Attorney General’s Office, which saw evidence of “criminal behavior” in the face of “abusive and violent” actions committed by these platforms. against the legislative proposal.
Google and Telegram have in recent weeks published texts against the so-called “fake news bill,” which has been under consideration in Congress for several years and aims to regulate social networks and increase control over the content circulating on them.
Regarding the search engine, the Brazilian version published a text titled “PL (bill) on ‘fake news’ could increase confusion about what is true and what is false in Brazil.”
The post was signed by Marcelo Lacerda, director of government relations and public policy at Google Brasil, and was withdrawn shortly after Lula’s government threatened sanctions if it remained available.
Telegram also criticized the project in a public post where it called it an attempt at “censorship” and an “attack on democracy”, adding that its approval would be the end of “the modern internet”.
This led to a strong decision by Moraes, who threatened to suspend the platform unless he published a correction acknowledging that his text, “egregious and illegal disinformation, attacks the National Congress, the judiciary, the rule of law and Brazilian democracy.”
In this context, the Attorney General’s Office, following a complaint filed by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Artur Lira, asked the country’s highest court to investigate those responsible for technology companies in Brazil.
According to the indictment, Google and Telegram urged their users to put pressure on MPs to vote against a bill that was supposed to be analyzed in the plenary session of the lower house last week, but which was put forward because of the possibility of being rejected.
The bill punishes the spread of lies on social media and requires platforms to remove content they deem inappropriate pending a court order, among other measures.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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