Brazil’s Senate leader kills Bolsonaro’s decree criticized by tech companies

BRAZIL, Sept. 14 (Reuters) – Brazilian Senate leader Rodrigo Pacheco said Tuesday he would not consider President Jair Bolsonaro’s decree limiting the power of social media to remove content, and killed a measure that he had met with widespread opposition from the tech giants.

Pacheco said Bolsonaro’s temporary measure, which required congressional approval to become law, did not meet regulatory requirements and introduced “considerable legal uncertainty.”

The Brazilian federal judiciary, which is investigating false news in the country, has been trying to remove online suits that critics accuse of spreading misinformation, forcing big tech players like Google’s YouTube (GOOGL.O) to act.

Bolsonaro signed the decree amending Internet regulations to combat the “arbitrary deletion” of accounts, profiles and content before a major political rally last week.

The decree was intended to protect “freedom of expression,” the president’s office said at the time. But it generated a major setback in Brazil, with Google, Facebook (FB.O) and Twitter (TWTR.N) coming out against the measure.

The decision is another setback for Bolsonaro, who is at the polls after overseeing the world’s second deadliest outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. It is facing rising inflation and a weak economy ahead of the 2022 presidential election whose integrity it has questioned.

But it still retains a dedicated fan base and can rely on the full support of a wide constellation of online dresses.

Last month, YouTube suspended payments to 14-channel content producers that the country’s federal electoral tribunal had accused of spreading fake news about next year’s election.

Just a few days earlier, the inspector general of electoral justice ordered YouTube, Twitch.TV, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to suspend payments to people and pages that were spreading misinformation about the Brazilian electoral system.

Bolsonaro’s own content has also been targeted. In July, YouTube said it had removed videos from the Bolsonaro channel to spread erroneous information about the coronavirus outbreak. Twitter and Facebook withdrew Bolsonaro’s videos last year for violating their terms of use after making unfounded claims about the pandemic.

Report by Maria Carolina Marcello Written by Gabriel Stargardter Edited by Brad Haynes, Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall

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