Jurist: Vague concepts open a loophole for censorship in big tech decree

The federal government's decree regulating so-called big techs has generated criticism among legal experts.

In an interview with CNN, Constitutional Law professor André Marsiglia warned that some concepts present in the text are vague and could open gaps for censorship or mistakes in the application of norms.

"It is precisely in this territory where some of these concepts, being vague, can generate some type of censorship or some type of misunderstanding", declared the jurist. The lack of clear definitions, according to him, creates an environment of uncertainty for both platforms and users.

According to Marsiglia, the decree represents a significant change in relation to the previous logic established by the Marco Civil da Internet, which provided for an individualized approach to the removal of online content.

The expert explained that, previously, the content removal process required legal action or a notification directed to the profile or profile owner responsible for publication.

With the new decree, this dynamic changes considerably. "Before, we had an individualized logic for removing content in the Marco Civil da Internet", stated Marsiglia. "And now we have another logic, which is a more generic withdrawal."

According to the lawyer, platforms will now be held proactively responsible for removing certain content, regardless of any court order. This mechanism is called, in the text of the decree, "duty of care".

In practice, this means that if a platform does not act on its own to remove certain content, it could already be held responsible.

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Source: CNN