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Brazilian Senate approves bill to tackle fake news
This week, Brazilian Senate has passed the Bill on Liberty, Responsibility and Transparency on the Internet, popularly known as the Bill on Fake News.
If the bill is also approved by the Congress and sanctioned by the President, internet service providers will have to observe a series of new obligations. Such obligations will apply specifically to (i) social media; and (ii) private messaging services, that is, providers that allow users to send messages, the content of which will be private and accessible only to sender and receiver.
Under the bill’s wording, both social media and private messaging will have to (i) prevent inauthentic accounts to be created/share content; (ii) ban automated accounts which are not identified as automated accounts; (iii) identify sponsored content. Additionally, in case there are any evidence a user is running an automated or non-authentic account, or in case of a court order, service providers may require users to prove their identity by presenting a valid ID.
With regards specifically to messaging services, the bill establishes that providers must keep, for 3 (three) months, viral messages. The document goes further to define ‘viral messages’ as any content which has been sent by more than 5(five) users, within a timeframe of 15 (fifteen) days, to groups, transmission lists or the alike.
Now, regarding specifically social media, such providers will be obliged to observe the bill’s provision for the moderation of content. The document indicates a list of content which must be immediately taken down by social media, amongst which we highlight (i) posts containing incitement to hatred; and (ii) publications that aim to induce third parties to error, mistake or confusion, by using deliberately altered images, audios or videos (usually referred to as deep fakes). Lastly, there are a series of provisions targeting promoted or sponsored content, including the obligation for social media to identify the user who is promoting the content.
Also, the bill enshrines a transparency obligation that obliges service providers to produce quarterly reports to inform the public: it will be service providers’ responsibility to indicate its internal proceedings and decisions it has taken with regards to content created within Brazil.
Lastly, lack of compliance with the law may be subject service providers (both social media and messaging services) to a fine of up to 10% (ten percent) of their total annual turnover of the preceding financial year in Brazil.
We highlight that the bill will now be the subject of debates before the House of Representatives, and it will later be sent to the President for sanctioning. Only in case the bill is approved both by Congress and by the President, it will be transformed into law.
Dias Carneiro’s Digital Law and Technology team will continue to follow the developments of the issue.
