🇧🇷⚖️🔓🖥 — CENSORSHIP ADVANCES IN BRAZIL: The Federal Supreme Court (STF) has approved, by 8 votes to 3, a ruling that compels digital platforms to immediately remove content classified as "anti-democratic conduct," even without a court order

🚫 The decision establishes that social media networks that keep such content online may be held civilly liable if they fail to implement prior mechanisms for preventing or removing the material, with fines and other types of sanctions provided for.

❌ In addition to so-called "anti-democratic conduct," the ruling also mandates the immediate removal of content that promotes “incitement to discrimination” based on race, religion, sexuality, or gender identity. The list also includes terrorism or preparatory terrorism crimes, incitement to suicide, child pornography, human trafficking, and violence against women.

⚖️ The ruling stems from the case regarding the constitutionality of Article 19 of Brazil’s Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, which limited platform liability to cases in which there was a court order. With the new interpretation, the STF declared part of the article unconstitutional, arguing that it left constitutionally protected rights—such as the safeguarding of democracy—insufficiently protected.

❗️ The category of "anti-democratic conduct" has frequently been manipulated in recent years by the judiciary to justify censorship of the political right on social media. Since 2019, the Supreme Court's controversial investigations have treated a range of expressions—from posts questioning the security of electronic voting machines to criticisms of the justices themselves—as threats to democracy.

🔍 "Platforms will now have to preemptively remove any potentially questionable content to avoid liability or financial risk," lamented Fábio Coelho, president of Google Brazil, in an interview earlier in June.

Source 🖇