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Brazil’s Senate and Supreme Court have repealed the rules that President Jair Bolsonaro released last week that prohibits social networks from removing information they consider disinformation about the upcoming presidential election.
The dual move by the court and Congress late Tuesday was quickly killed off. one of the most restrictive and intrusive internet laws It was a harsh rebuke to a president who is already grappling with a series of political crises imposed in a democratic country.
When Mr Bolsonaro published the policy, it was the first time a national government had acted to prevent social media companies from removing content that violated its rules.
The move alarmed tech companies and Mr Bolsonaro’s political opponents, as it was intended to ensure that the president and his allies would shake confidence in next year’s presidential election.
In recent months, Mr. Bolsonaro has used social media to spread allegations that the only way he could lose the election was to cheat the vote. Such claims would be protected under Mr Bolsonaro’s emergency measure, issued last week, which gave social media companies 30 days to comply.
But quickly on Tuesday, the Supreme Court suspended the rules from going into effect, while the president of the Brazilian Senate effectively shelved them.
“The reaction of the Brazilian political class is a very positive sign,” said Mauricio Santoro, professor of international relations at Rio de Janeiro State University. “The Brazilian leadership finally understands how important the internet is to political life in Brazil.”
Mr Bolsonaro relied on the internet to help him become president in 2018, using social networks to spread his brand of right-wing populism. Now, facing crises involving the pandemic, corruption investigations and declining poll numbers, he is turning to social media again, this time to try to save his presidency.
In posts and videos online, Mr Bolsonaro has attacked the Supreme Court, touted unproven treatments for the coronavirus and called for nationwide protests against his political enemies. Social media companies have removed some of their posts about the coronavirus.
Then last week, on the eve of nationwide protests, it issued a so-called temporary measure, a type of emergency order aimed at handling emergencies. According to the policy, social media companies can only remove posts that contain certain types of content, such as nudity, incitement to crime, or copyright infringement. To remove other posts, companies had to obtain a court order.
The Bolsonaro government also places limits on the ability of social media companies to remove user accounts, potentially protecting Mr. Bolsonaro from the fate suffered by his political ally, former President Donald J. Trump. Mr Trump turned off his megaphone earlier this year, when major social networks blocked him from their sites.
Social media companies attacked the new rules, saying they would allow false information to spread. On Wednesday, a Twitter spokesperson, praising the actions of the Senate and the Supreme Court, said Bolsonaro’s policy “undermines the values and consensus” of Brazilian internet laws. Facebook and YouTube declined to comment.
Mr Bolsonaro’s government did not respond to a request for comment.
Brazil’s Supreme Court is investigating disinformation operations in the country, and Mr Bolsonaro became the target of these investigations last month. A member of the court, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, imprisoned several of the president’s supporters for allegedly funding or inciting violence or anti-democratic actions.
Mr Bolsonaro described these arrests as politically motivated, and Justice Moraes was the target of nationwide protests this month by supporters of the president.
In the United States, conservative politicians have sought to pass similar laws as part of their larger battle with Silicon Valley over what they see as tech companies censoring right-wing voices.
Florida made a law In May, he tried to prevent social networks from removing political candidates from their sites, but a federal judge blocked After a month. NS Texas governor signs a similar law last week.
In Brazil, the rules published by Mr Bolsonaro faced long odds.
Such temporary measures will expire in 120 days, unless the Brazilian Congress makes them permanent. Instead, Senate president Rodrigo Pacheco effectively circumvented the measure by sending them back to Mr Bolsonaro in just over a week.
Both the Senate president and the Supreme Court said the rules should not be enacted as a temporary measure because they do not address an emergency and Congress is discussing a bill to regulate social networks.
Carlos Affonso Souza, a professor specializing in internet law at Rio de Janeiro State University, also said the rules would be bad for the country. “There was a concern that the online environment might be more toxic and more dangerous,” he said.
Mr Affonso Souza said the Senate decision restricts Mr Bolsonaro from issuing the same rules this year, but he may try again in 2022.
Given next year’s presidential election and Mr Bolsonaro’s low poll numbers, Mr Santoro said he expects the president to try something else to ensure he can continue to use the internet to spread his message.
“He’s not going to give up this fight so easily,” he said. “The internet is very important to him.”
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