The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) of Brazil approved on Thursday a resolution that allows false or defamatory content to be eliminated more quickly, among a series of measures aimed at combating disinformation in the final stretch of the presidential elections.
The TSE has decided that it could require social networks to remove content deemed irregular within two hours, under penalty of fining recalcitrants between 100,000 and 150,000 reais ($19,000 to $28,000) for each hour of overreach.
“Since (the start of the campaign for the) second round, not only false information has proliferated, but also aggressiveness in that information, hate speech,” explained Alexandre de Moraes, president of the TSE.
multiple attacks
This causes “corrosion of democracy. That is why we need to act faster,” he continued. He met with campaign managers for Lula and Bolsonaro on Thursday, as well as representatives from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube the day before.
The court also required campaign teams to remove a number of internet posts, including videos that associate Lula with abortion, drugs or claim he intends to close churches if elected.
Lula’s camp was forced to remove documents linking the far-right president to cannibalism and pedophilia.
Source: BFM TV
