House pledges to cooperate with electoral courts to curb misinformation

House Speaker Arthur Lira. Photo: Paulo Sergio/CD/CC-BY 4.0

Arthur Lira, Brazil’s House Speaker, and Edson Fachin, the country’s chief electoral justice, signed an agreement on Tuesday to curb the spread of misinformation ahead of the 2022 elections.

The two congressional chambers committed themselves to launching awareness programs to educate citizens about the illegality of disinformation in the electoral process – as well as to encourage people to report questionable content. The 60-month agreement also binds Congress to defend the integrity of the electoral process and reinforce the reliability of Brazil’s fully electronic voting system – both of which are under constant attack from President Jair Bolsonaro.

However, Congress’ commitment to curbing disinformation must be taken with a grain of salt. The House is also set to vote on a so-called “Fake News bill”, which holds provisions that would guarantee lawmakers immunity from prosecution for anything they publish on social media.

Amanda Audi

Amanda Audi is a journalist specializing in politics and human rights. She is the former executive director of Congresso em Foco and worked as a reporter for The Intercept Brasil, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, Gazeta do Povo, Poder360, among others. In 2019, she won the Comunique-se Award for best-written media reporter and won the Mulher Imprensa award for web journalism in 2020