The rise of social media has revolutionized how people communicate and consume information. But it has also brought challenges, such as the spread of misinformation and hate speech.
Multiple countries are beginning to consider the idea of regulating social media to address these issues. Brazil is one of them.
However, regulating social media can also lead to concerns about censorship and the infringement of free speech rights. A working group set up by the Lula administration will have to thread that needle.
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In this episode:
- Guilherme Casarões is a professor at think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas. He is the co-founder of the Observatory of the Far-Right, a project to monitor the behavior of extremist groups in the political arena.
Background reading:
- The government’s efforts to curb online misinformation were motivated by the January 8 riots, when far-right radicals stormed and ransacked the headquarters of all three branches of government. They protested the 2022 election results, falsely claiming that the presidential race had been rigged to favor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- Listen to Episode #227 to learn more about the January 8 riots.
- Mr. Bolsonaro has never conceded his October 2022 defeat to Lula and has for years fanned the flames of discourse against Brazil’s electoral integrity. In January, the Supreme Court placed the far-right leader under investigation for allegedly inciting the January 8 riots.
- Far-right lawmakers want to create a select panel in Congress to firehose public discourse with falsehoods about the riots.
- The Lula administration shelved a proposal to curb anti-democratic content on digital platforms by way of a provisional decree.
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