The National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) determined that Google immediately comply with a series of precautionary measures to correct the indications that the company is censoring the public debate on Bill 2630/2020, the so-called PL of Fake News, that creates the Brazilian Law of Freedom, Responsibility and Transparency on the Internet. According to the national secretary of Consumer Defense, Wadih Damous, the measures are the result of the administrative process that Senacon’s Consumer Protection and Defense Department instituted to investigate the evidence that the multinational technology company disclosed irregular political advertising, subliminally, infringing the Consumer Defense Code. According to Damous, the main indication that the company has been acting irregularly to promote its own economic interests is the fact that it has included, on the main page of the search engine, next to the search box, a text in which it maintained that “The PL of Fake News can increase the confusion about what is true or false in Brazil”. The link referred the Internet user to an article signed by Google’s Director of Government Relations and Public Police, Marcelo Lacerda, and was taken down shortly after Senacon announced the measures that the company must comply with. Google has removed encrypted and illegal advertising from its homepage. We hope that platforms deactivate mechanisms of censorship or violation of freedom of expression with isonomy. And we remain open to dialogue. The LAW must prevail over the digital western — Flávio Dino 🇧🇷 (@FlavioDino) May 2, 2023 Linked to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Senacon has determined Google to signal the user as advertising this and other content contrary to the approval of the PL 2630. As it has already given wide publicity to the criticisms of the proposed regulation of digital platforms, Google will also have to start publicizing, within two hours of being notified of the decision, positions favorable to the bill. If it fails to comply with Senacon’s determinations, the company will be fined R$ 1 million per hour. “In the face of cases of misleading and abusive advertising practiced, the obligation to [da empresa] publish, within a maximum period of two hours after notification, counter-advertising aimed at duly informing consumers of the company’s commercial interest with regard to said legislative proposal”, declared the national secretary when detailing the measures, during a press conference, at the beginning of the afternoon today (2). Senacon also determined that the company refrain from censoring, in communities and applications, divergent positions of its interests, as well as from favoring converging positions. In addition, it must report any interference in the search indexing system related to the PL 2630 debate. “[Para verificar] the ease with which someone who does a search on PL 2630 is referred to articles and manifestations contrary to the project, just click there [no mecanismo de busca]”, maintained Damous. “What these platforms are doing is putting a unique and absolute truth in the face of their opinion about PL 2063. And we know that there are contrary opinions that are not appearing in these publications. This is unconstitutional,” added the secretary. “As far as consumers are concerned, they are violating the Consumer Protection Code in various ways, especially with the abuse of economic power and encrypted, abusive advertising that emits an editorial opinion.” Economic interests During the press conference, the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, assured that, with the measure, the federal government is trying to avoid “private, clandestine and disguised censorship”. “This debate is quite old and, therefore, has no direct relationship with our government”, said Dino, recalling that the PL has been pending in the Chamber of Deputies since 2020. “But everyone knows that, after January 8 [quando o Palácio do Planalto, o Congresso Nacional e o Supremo Tribunal Federal foram invadidos e depredados por vândalos e golpistas], the MJSP came to formulate ideas on how to move forward with this regulation – which is a requirement of the Constitution.” “Afterwards, we were instructed to respect the debate that was already underway in the Chamber and that had been taking place in terms of normality. Until, this weekend, there was a profusion of articles [reportagens] on studies that show an attempt by companies that have their own economic interests to censor and manipulate the debate through atypical actions. [Com isso] Senacon found itself with dozens, perhaps hundreds of indications that some companies were manipulating their own terms of use to privilege what suits them to the detriment of other voices. This is censorship and it is Senacon’s duty to ensure that no one manipulates freedom of expression in Brazil”, added Dino. Among the main academic works mentioned by Dino is a report that the Internet and Social Media Studies Laboratory (NetLab), at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), released in April. In the document, the researchers point out that companies such as Google, Meta (controller of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp), Spotify and Brasil Paralelo have been publishing ads against PL 2630 without informing their users that it is advertising content, making it appear to be dealing with It is objective and unbiased content. For the researchers, the practice may constitute an abuse of economic power, since it impacts public opinion on the eve of voting on the bill and, consequently, the parliamentarians who will decide on the issue. “Platforms are using all possible resources to prevent the approval of PL 2630 because what is at stake are the billions raised with digital advertising that currently do not have any rules, restrictions or transparency obligations, leaving advertisers and consumers vulnerable to their interests costs”, warn the researchers in the document. The researchers’ conclusions support a request for information that the Federal Public Ministry in São Paulo (MPF~SP) sent yesterday to Google. In the copy of the order that Agência Brasil had access to, the attorney for the Deputy Citizen’s Rights in the state of São Paulo, Yuri Corrêa da Luz, maintains that, if confirmed, such practices “appear to be outside the scope of conduct that subjects targeted by regulatory proposals can adopt in a democratic debate”. For the attorney, “it is not about public and transparent participation in an ongoing regulatory discussion, but about the use, by potentially affected platforms, of the means they control, with exclusivity, to promote, in an opaque way and escaping from any accountability [responsabilização], the perception that interests them on a topic of undeniable public importance.” Coalition Favoring what it classifies as a “democratic regulation” of digital platforms, the Coalition Rights on the Network, which brings together more than 50 academic and civil society organizations, argues that the debate and approval of the PL is a “key opportunity to [o Brasil] move towards a digital environment that protects citizens and ensures rights.
Agência Brasil
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