Why Brazil's Internet Freedoms Are Under Threat
Proposed legislation could roll back the country's landmark net neutrality law
Brazilians are internet-crazy. Really. Brazil is home to one of the world's largest population of internet denizens, who are also among the most avid users of social networks. The Wall Street Journal once dubbed the country "the social media capital of the universe," and a study found that Brazilians spend more waking hours online than any other nationality.
In 2014, Congress passed the Marco Civil da Internet, a type of internet constitution and one of the first of its kind in the world. The 2014 law guarantees net neutrality and enshrines privacy of online communications.
The same year the law passed, the country held elections, resulting in the most conservative legislature in decades. And now, some Brazilian lawmakers are proposing ways to roll back the law.
ITS Rio, the Institute of Technology and Society in Rio de Janeiro, has been on the forefront of digital freedoms in Brazil. Co-founder and executive director Ronaldo Lemos helped craft the Marco Civil and has been closely following its implementation. So when Brazil's lower house released the new list of proposals last week, ITS sounded the alarm, detailing the bills on Medium.
The group laid out the congressional proposals in Portuguese and English, which include:
- censoring those on social media who speak negatively about politicians
- jail sentences of two years for those who violate sites’ terms of service
- putting federal police in charge of any crime committed with a cell phone or computer
- requiring internet service providers to give police the name and physical address of users for IP addresses without a court order
- allowing ISPs to block sites and apps if it’s determined they’re being used for illegal services
They wrote:
"In other words, they are criminalizing the internet and placing the network under the strict control of the state. This is the same path taken by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, North Korea and Russia…
…What we are witnessing now is not an attempt to combat cybercrime, but rather an attempt to control the internet, that has troubled corrupt politicians in Brazil."
Medium's own Andrew McLaughlin wrote about the proposals, noting:
"Put together, these provisions would make for a dramatic setback to free speech and privacy in Brazil, crushing individual rights and enabling abuse by the government, public officials, incumbent corporations, and well-connected individuals. None of these provisions can be justified by the entirely legitimate objective of fighting online crime. If anything, they would encourage lawless behavior by the powerful."
Brazil’s Internet is Under Legislative Attack
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medium.com
His post is also available in Portuguese.
The ITS Medium post sparked a Twitter conversation between Lemos, federal congressman Daniel Coelho — one of the proposals' authors — and other Brazilian Twitter users. ITS published a Storify-esque round-up of the conversation, which ended with the legislator telling Lemos that he "wants to hear his suggestions."
And now, the Social Communication Council — a civil society organization created by the Brazilian government — will hold an emergency meeting about the bills on April 5.
With Brazil's political crisis in full swing, it's unclear what the fate of these bills will be. To find out what happens next, follow ITS Rio.
Update: Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of The Web Foundation, wrote an open letter to Brazilian legislators under a Creative Commons license. We've republished it on Medium in English and Portuguese.
