Fake news bill treats all Brazilian netizens as potential criminals

A highly consequential vote is set to take place in the Brazilian Senate on Thursday, yet it has strangely flown under the radar of the domestic press. It is the so-called Internet Freedom, Responsibility, and Transparency Act, drafted in reaction to inquiries in Congress and the Supreme Court into the spreading of fake news for political gain.

The original proposal has been altered by its rapporteur, Senator Angelo Coronel, from Bahia — in what is less of a facelift and more like an extreme makeover, introducing a number of highly controversial provisions into the bill of law.

In one of these questionable points, the bill greenlights social media companies and messaging services to unilaterally remove content if it is considered to be fraudulent by a panel of independent fact-checkers. Internet civil rights organizations have spoken out against that permission, claiming it violates users’ freedoms. They are also against enhanced powers for platforms to identify users, calling it a privacy risk.

ANDI, a non-profit organization that operates in Brazil since the 1980s to use journalism in the promotion of human rights, says Mr. Coronel’s report “promotes massive surveillance,” and opens up the possibility for internet users to be criminally persecuted. Pulling no punches, the organization claims it could easily become “the worst internet freedom of speech law on the planet, straight out of...