Brazil sets Meta 72-hour deadline for new course in content moderation
Meta wants to control content on its platforms less in future – Brazil's government wants to know by Monday how this fits in with its laws.
(Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock.com)
Shortly after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of content moderation on his platforms, Brazil responded with a 72-hour ultimatum: the US company should announce by Monday how the significantly looser approach to content control can be reconciled with Brazilian laws.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he wants to usher in a new era on the Facebook, Instagram and Threads platforms. Controversial and, in particular, political topics are to be less restricted by automatic filters and moderators in the future.
Brazilian judiciary sets ultimatum
In addition, Meta will stop working with so-called fact-checkers, initially in the USA, Zuckerberg announced on Instagram on Tuesday. Instead, Meta will introduce a form of community notes for its platforms, similar to X (formerly Twitter).
The Brazilian judiciary reacted quickly to this: as announced by Attorney General Jorge Messias on Friday, his authority has submitted an extrajudicial request to Meta. Meta is to explain how the company intends to protect children and young people, women and small companies that use the platform as a business model in the future.
Meta's course "very worrying"
Messias described the fact that one of the most important social networks is announcing that it will no longer control content as "very worrying". This would have a major impact on Brazilian society. Especially regarding inappropriate content, information related to criminal activities, ethnic conflicts and hate speech, the government is very concerned that controls against the spread of fake news no longer exist.
Brazil has strict laws to protect vulnerable population groups and will not allow Meta's networks to turn into a place for "digital carnage or barbarism", Messias emphasized.
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Last year, the social media platform X showed what consequences could be in store if Meta does not respond to the Brazilian government. At the end of August , a Brazilian federal judge ordered the shutdown of X in the country. Prior to this, tech billionaire Elon Musk's news platform had let a court-ordered deadline for appointing a legal representative pass. The company also refused to block the accounts of right-wing activists who were spreading conspiracy narratives and false information. The block was only lifted weeks later.
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