Brazil looks to regulate monetized content on Internet - crime against freedom of expression
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There's another fight against the growth and development of content creators in Brazil by the government. This came after the Brazilian Minister said that the government will look into regulating monetized contents on the internet.
The Brazilian government is studying whether to regulate Internet platforms with content that earns revenue such as advertising, its secretary for digital policies, Joao Brant, said on Friday.
The idea would be for a regulator to hold such platforms, not consumers, accountable for monetized content, Brant told Reuters.
This to me is a continuous attempt by government to control what and the kind of contents that'll be published on the internet. This is an attempt to move content creators back to centralized platforms. Government controlling what content creators should write is an abberation of the decentralized ecosystem.
Another goal is "to prevent the networks from being used for the dissemination and promotion of crimes and illegal content" especially after the riots by supporters of former far-right President JairBolsonaro in Brasilia in January, fueled by misinformation about the election he lost in October.Source
Apart from the fact that there are illegal contents on the internet, I also think that the government is afraid of the power of the social media and Web 3 ecosystems that is able to constitute the change that the society needs. Although, the government has complained about fake and misleading informations that have been published on the internet through the respective social media platforms. The truth is that not all news or information on the social media that is fake and misleading. There are news that exposes the wrong doings of different government administrations which the government will not admit.
The decision to regulate monetized contents is a deviation from the 2014 laws that protects contents on the internet.
The law's Article 19 exempts platforms from legal responsibility "for damages resulting from content generated by third parties", unless there is a specific court order for the removal of the content.
For Brant, the current framework "generates an incentive for platforms not to take care of the public space of debate."
The absence of accountability for content that is promoted, monetized or presented as advertising must be reconsidered, he said, adding: "For them to have zero responsibility for that content is very bad."
Brazil's Supreme Court has been discussing the constitutionality of Article 19 since 2017, based on a lawsuit filed by Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) Meta, owner of Facebook and WhatsApp.
Meta questioned its responsibility for removing content without a court decision in a case involving a fake Facebook profile. The court scheduled a public hearing on the issue for March 28.
I'll conclude by saying that this is a step backwards for content creators in Brazil but I believe that the entire cryptoverse in Brazil will prevail. This will be achieved in collaboration with other Web 2 ecosystems that have their offices in the country.
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