Brazil expresses concern over Meta’s content moderation changes | News on social networks
Brazil’s attorney general says Meta’s move to loosen restrictions on hate speech could run afoul of the country’s laws.
Brazilian authorities have expressed “serious concern” over social media giant Meta’s recent announcement that it will soften their policies limiting inflammatory speech and fact-checking.
In a statement on Tuesday, Brazil’s Attorney General’s office (AGU) said it would seek more information from Meta, adding that the policy change may not be in accordance with Brazilian law.
“Some aspects contained in the Meta document cause serious concern. The changes now being reported to Meta are not in accordance with Brazilian legislation and are not sufficient to protect the fundamental rights of citizens,” the office said in a statement.
last week, Targetwhich owns platforms like Facebook and Instagram, has terminated the third party fact-checking programon the grounds that it has become a “censorship tool”.
The company also indicated it would tone down rhetoric that could be seen as hostile to groups such as immigrants and LGBTQ people.
“We are getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics such as immigration, gender identity and gender, which are the subject of frequent political discourses and debates,” Meta said in statement. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or in Congress, but not on our platforms.”
The move away from fact-checking comes weeks after United States President-elect Donald Trump took office on January 20. Trump has repeatedly criticized social media platforms as biased.
Meta said in a follow-up letter that the fact-checking changes would only apply within the U.S. and that the community standards changes were “limited” to the hate speech policy.
“AGU and other ministries understand that the current terms of use, as well as the changes now notified by Meta, do not correspond to Brazilian legislation and are not sufficient to protect fundamental rights,” the Brazilian attorney general’s office said.
Brazil has become a hotbed of debate over freedom of expression and the responsibility of social media giants to limit hate speech and the spread of false claims on their platforms. Authorities there have previously clashed with the powerful tech mogul Elon Musk and his social media company X, formerly known like Twitteron issues of content moderation.
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva he also signed a law banning the use of smartphones in school on Monday.
This policy does not address content moderation and follows the global trend of restricting the use of phones in academic settings by young children. A poll published in October by Brazilian pollster Datafolha found that nearly two-thirds of respondents were in favor of such restrictions.
“We cannot allow humanism to be replaced by algorithms,” Lula said at a closed ceremony at the presidential palace in the Brazilian capital.