The Brazilian government announced Wednesday that it will require social media platforms to remove content advocating violence in schools, following recent attacks on educational institutions.
The statements by the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, quoted in Agência Brasil, appear later in the meeting with representatives of the companies Meta, Kwai, Tik Tok, Twitter, YouTube, Google and WhatsApp to discuss actions to prevent violence in schools .
“We are seeing how panic is settling in schools and families and we have not yet identified the proportionality of the reaction of the platforms to this epidemic of violence that threatens our schools at this time,” said Flávio Dino at a press conference. , quoted by Agência Brasil. .
These statements come after a new attack, last week, marked by the murder of four children.
This new attack, the second in ten days, shocked Brazil and even had an effect on the media, with various outlets such as Estadão, or the Globo group, announcing that they would not publish photographs, videos, names or other information about the perpetrator of the attack. attack in Blumenau.
Brazil has seen a series of similar attacks against schools in recent months.
On November 25, a 16-year-old teenager shot and killed four people in two successive attacks against two nearby schools in Aracruz, in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo.
Two months earlier, a man armed with a pistol and two knives invaded a civic-military school and killed a student in the state of Bahia.
“I made it clear in the meeting [com as plataformas] that if the notification is not met, we will take police and legal action against the platforms. Obviously, we don’t want that. We want the platforms to help us”, stressed the minister.
So far, the Brazilian authorities have identified more than 500 profiles that posted violent content against schools, identified on April 8 and 9, all on Twitter.
The platforms, according to Flávio Dino, justify their reluctance to remove content with respect to freedom of expression.
“We are at a border where the opportunists are going to rehearse the false argument that we are trying, in some way, to limit the so-called freedom of expression. Freedom of expression does not exist to transmit images of mutilated adolescents”, said Flávio Dino.
“There is no freedom of expression for those who are spreading panic and threats against schools. There is no freedom of expression for those who want to kill children in schools. There is no term of use that can, legally, serve as a shield for those who want to behave irresponsibly, ”she stressed.
Source: TSF
