Brazil: Justice Moraes defends the accountability of social media companies

Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes said on Monday, 13, that social network companies should be held responsible for user-generated content.

For the magistrate, the big techs should not be considered only technology platforms.

The statement was made during the seminar “Freedom of Expression, Social Networks and Democracy”, promoted by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in Rio de Janeiro.

Another measure defended by Moraes was the self-regulation of digital media; he cited, for example, TikTok that, during the elections, censored about 6,300 videos on its own.

“What we need is to take this model, which they have already built, and perfect it focused on the defense of democracy and the end of hate speech,” said the Justice during the event.

“An improvement also betting on self-regulation. Otherwise, we are going to dry ice. This must happen.”

According to Alexandre Moraes, big techs must be held accountable for three actions: boosting, monetizing, and using the algorithm.

“What we have to assist is exactly in which of these requirements for self-regulation and what is the accountability,” he said.

“And I insist, from the moment that some support existed, algorithms, boosting or monetization, you can no longer talk about neutrality.”

And he argued that regulation should be made in stages to be more effective.

“If we want to regulate everything about fake news, we will regulate absolutely nothing,” Moraes concluded.

“So let’s start by replicating the already existing model in big techs.”

Besides the STF Justice, the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, and the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, also participated.

With information from Revista Oeste