Brazil’s right fear Lula’s anti-fake news proposal goes too far

The firehose of misinformation in Brazilian public discourse has been flagged as a major threat to democracy by political experts, activists, and politicians alike. In the roughly 1,500 days he served as president, Jair Bolsonaro made almost 6,700 false or misleading statements, according to the fact-checking agency Aos Fatos, a partner organization of The Brazilian Report.

But a reaction to the problem by Brazil’s new government has raised alarm bells among the opposition and legal scholars concerned about freedom of speech. In office for a week, the Lula administration has created two departments to purportedly fight disinformation.

The Solicitor General’s Office created an office to promote the “defense of democracy,” led by a team of four people. One of its objectives is to file lawsuits to “fight disinformation on public policies.” It can also work for “the preservation of the legitimacy of the branches of government.”

Separately, the president’s press office created the Promotion of Freedom of Speech Department. Its missions include proposing policies to fight “hate speech on the internet.” 

It will also monitor “established institutional partnerships,” a reference to agreements with social media platforms on fighting disinformation.

Disinformation: Fighting fire with fire

The new offices seem especially directed at the behavior of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies over the last four years. Mr. Bolsonaro — alongside several members of his cabinet and acolytes in Congress — worked to undermine trust in the government itself, especially regarding vaccines and deforestation.

Many of them were accused of committing crimes during the Covid crisis, including counts of charlatanism and fostering a deadly epidemic.

For example, Mr. Bolsonaro falsely claimed several times that Covid vaccines were “experimental” even after they were approved by Anvisa, Brazil’s...