Brazil elections 2022: Electoral Court and Telegram agree to combat “disinformation”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On May 17, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and the instant messaging social network Telegram signed an agreement to combat the spread of false news through the platform. With the measure, a channel will be opened to receive complaints and disseminate official information about the elections. The agreement will be in effect until December 31.

A tool will be adopted to mark content considered disinformative. According to the clauses, Telegram will also conduct an internal investigation into the violation of the platform’s policies.

According to the court, TSE is the first electoral body in the world to sign an agreement with the platform and establish concrete measures to combat what it labels as “fake news”.

In March, Telegram also joined the Permanent Program to Confront Disinformation of the Electoral Justice.

The agreement occurred after the platform appointed its representative in Brazil, lawyer Alan Campos Elias Thomaz. The measure was taken after Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) blocked the operation of the application in Brazil because the platform had not complied with court orders.

BATTLE OVER WHAT IS TRUE OR FALSE

The battle over what is true or false, who gets to decide, and whether and how to punish offenders, is tearing at the very fabric of the country’s young democracy.

Fake news is badly eroding the public’s faith in Brazil’s voting system ahead of the presidential elections in October 2022. It is also at the heart of a constitutional crisis pitting Bolsonaro against Brazil’s Supreme Court, which the president and his followers have threatened to disobey or even try to close down to protect freedom of speech.

The question of how to deal with the tide of misinformation, while also not curtailing essential liberties, poses an extraordinarily difficult dilemma for policymakers, technology companies, the justice system, and others, with no easy solutions in sight.

With information from Agência Brasil