Lula’s ministers attack big techs to defend the Censorship Bill

Ricardo Cappelli, the acting minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI) of the Presidency of the Republic, attacked the big techs on social networks to defend the Censorship Bill (Fake News Bill) on Monday, 1.

The Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, did the same.

“It is curious, to say the least, to see foreign companies making aggressive advertising campaigns against the Fake News Bill,” Cappelli said.

“Typical case of undue external interference in a matter of national interest conducted by the Brazilian parliament,” he added in a post on Twitter.

Also on Twitter, Dino shared a post by the digital militancy Sleeping Giants Brazil to warn that he will forward an alleged action of Google “to the analysis of the National Consumer Secretariat, a body of the Ministry of Justice, given the possibility of the configuration of abusive practices of the companies.

The Lula government ministers’ statements come after the companies Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) and Google have positioned themselves against the Censorship Bill.

In its first public statement about the measure, Meta said that the Censorship Bill creates a “permanent system of surveillance, similar to that of countries with anti-democratic regimes.

For big techs, Censorship Bill may increase disinformation

In addition, Meta presented a series of problems in the bill and stated that its current text “would make it difficult for technology companies like ours to continue to offer the kind of free services used by millions of people and businesses in Brazil.”

Google Brazil’s government relations and public policy director Marcelo Lacerda said the Censorship Bill is vague.

And that Google already has measures in place to moderate hate content. In addition, he said that the responsibility for violence in schools is not only the big techs.

For both Google and Meta, the Censorship Bill can increase disinformation.

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