Proposals to toughen National Security Law met with protest

Senator Angelo Coronel’s anti-fake news bill managed a rare feat in today’s Brazil, uniting both the left and right of the political spectrum … in opposition. He wanted to force users to send tech companies proof of identity to access social media platforms, which would enhance the risks to people’s personal information. His efforts to create what activists called “the worst internet speech law on the planet” was clobbered in the Senate — and the matter was not put to a vote. But that doesn’t mean threats to free expression are gone from the Brazilian Congress.

Congressman José Medeiros, from the Center-West state of Mato Grosso do Sul, wants harsh penalties for people found guilty of threatening the lives of government leaders by using the press or social media. Mr. Medeiros proposes changes to Brazil’s National Security Law, establishing 4-to-12-year jail sentences for people who target the heads of congressional houses, Supreme Court justices, and the president — of whom Mr. Medeiros is a staunch supporter.

The current National Security Law came to be in 1983, but the legal device took many forms prior to that. Authoritarian governments in Brazil’s history have resorted to using its repressive provisions using the “preservation of political order” as an excuse. Its first version came in 1935, under dictator Getulio Vargas, who used...