Brazil’s Electoral Court restores monetization of right-wing channels on YouTube

Minister Benedito Gonçalves of the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE) decided to restore the monetization of 11 right-wing channels on YouTube. The decision of this Friday, Mar. 3, provides that the amounts will remain withheld and “at the court’s disposal, until further deliberation.

This means that the channels’ owners can ask the platforms for the money earned through the audience. But access to the funds is not immediate.

The list of channels includes Terça Livre, Oswaldo Eustáquio, Bárbara Destefani, Vlog do Lisboa, and Jornal da Cidade On-Line.

According to Benedito Gonçalves, the revocation of the blockades is justified by the apparent “resumption of the state of normality in the country.

“As this is the picture of the moment, which, it is known, will only be maintained with constant vigilance and effective action on antidemocratic focuses, it becomes possible to revoke the injunction, specifically to release the use of monetization tools, according to the rules of each platform, by the profiles and channels under investigation,” he wrote.

Also, according to the minister, releasing the financial gains of the profiles does not allow the dissemination of allegedly false news.

Benedito Gonçalves argues, for example, that influencers should refrain from spreading fake news about the outcome of last year’s elections.

The TSE also states that the demonetization of right-wing channels “that were dedicated to spreading false content about the electronic ballot boxes” was intended to “discourage the practice of conducts that could unduly influence the outcome of the 2022 elections.”

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