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Credit, fake images
Brazil was already in the ‘top 5’ of online freedom, but lost the position
The internet has become less free in Brazil in recent months. The country, which was once in the “top 5” for online freedom, is now considered only “partially free” on the world wide web.
The findings come from the 2020 edition of the Freedom on the Net (or “Freedom on the Net”) report. This is a study published annually by the Freedom House organization, based in Washington, DC (USA).
Since 2009, the Freedom House report has rated countries based on the freedom their citizens have to communicate over the Internet.
The measurement is carried out through an extensive questionnaire, answered by a group of experts on the subject in each country.
In relation to 2019, Brazil fell one point in the note, from 64 points to 63.
In this year’s edition, Brazil ranks 21 among the 65 countries analyzed by the report. The top of the 2020 ranking is occupied by Iceland, followed by Estonia.
The fall is nothing new for the country, which has been losing positions since the beginning of the measurement in 2009.
That year, the country ranked fourth in the ranking of those who enjoyed the most freedom online. It was second only to Estonia, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Even in decline, Brazil maintained its status as a “free” country on the Internet until 2015; in the 2016 survey, the report considered it only “partially free”.
‘Fake news’ and the Senate bill
Credit, EPA
Approved by the Senate (photo), PL from Fake News now goes to the House and, for Freedom House, the bill puts freedom of expression at risk
Today, Brazil has one of the most complete and advanced digital legislation in the world, but, in Freedom House’s opinion, the rights of the Brazilian Internet user are today threatened by the proliferation of false information on the Internet and by legislative initiatives considered erroneous, such as the called “PL Fake News”.
Furthermore, online freedom in the country is also affected by infrastructure limitations; Although 75% of the country’s households have Internet access, this percentage is still lower than that of other countries in the region, such as Chile and Argentina.
“What we saw this year, and that was a matter of particular concern, was the participation of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (without a party), and of people close to the government, in the dissemination of disinformation online,” says Amy Slipowitz, who is a research manager at Freedom House and covers Latin America for the institution.
“Another area (in which the country has declined) is that journalists who work in the digital environment continue to suffer violence and assaults for work reasons. Only during the period covered by this report (June 2019 to May 2020), two professionals who did Local Internet journalism was shot dead, “Amy told BBC News Brazil.
“So these are some of the reasons why Brazil was classified as ‘partially free’ in this year’s report,” he says.
Slipowitz also says that Internet users in Brazil and the country’s civil society should be aware of legislative proposals that can restrict freedom of expression – in the organization’s opinion, this would be the case of the so-called “PL das Fake News” , which was approved. by the Senate in June of this year. The text was intended to curb the spread of rumors online and is now awaiting a deliberation in the House.
“In Brazil, the Senate passed a bill (that of Fake News) that is particularly problematic and dangerous for Internet freedom. Therefore, it would be important for Internet users and civil society to stay alert and work on against this bill. ” says Slipowitz.
“If approved, it can criminalize certain types of content; it can create prerequisites to identify users of social networks and other platforms; and it can force applications (such as WhatsApp) to keep copies of sent messages,” says the Freedom researcher. House, Lar.
However, opinion is not unanimous among researchers studying Internet regulation in Brazil.
Pablo Ortellado is a professor in the public policy management course at the University of São Paulo (USP) and a researcher at the Monitor of Political Debate in the Digital Environment, at the same university.
According to him, the Freedom House report is comprehensive and well-founded, but has a liberal slant: the report argues that freedom of expression online overrides other human rights, such as the right to be forgotten.
“There is (in the report) a unilateral view in defense of freedom of expression and privacy, especially when it conflicts with other rights,” says Ortellado.
“The right to be forgotten, when well implemented, is part of the right to personality development. It is a human right. The right to be forgotten, when well implemented, means the de-indexing of platforms. So, in a search engine , I will no longer find results on a crime that I committed, after the sentence was served, “he explains.
“Why? To allow me to develop my personality. Rebuild my life and continue to develop without being tied down,” he says. “But in the report they treat it as if it were an impediment to freedom of expression,” says Ortellado.
The researcher also does not agree with the characterization made in the Fake News PL.
Credit, REUTERS / Pilar Olivares
Brazil today has one of the most comprehensive and advanced digital legislation in the world, but according to a report, the country faces new threats, such as fake news networks.
In its latest version, Ortellado says, the bill overcame major problems, although it still features occasional inaccuracies.
“The PL had many versions. But the PL that was approved is not bad. You have implementation and definition issues here and there. But it is not a threat to Internet freedom, in any way, in my opinion, ”says Ortellado. .
The USP professor defends measures that are present in the bill, such as the possibility of identifying the origin of viral messages in applications such as WhatsApp.
Globally, Internet freedom falls for the tenth year in a row
Globally, this is the 10th consecutive year of decline in online freedom according to the Freedom House report.
The expert group highlights three factors that contributed to worsening the situation around the world.
First, various government officials around the world have started using the pandemic as a pretext to limit access to information. Then, technologies that were previously considered excessively intrusive were used to control population movement during the pandemic. Finally, several countries have increased controls on the flow of data with the rest of the world, in a process of “fragmentation” of the Internet.
“This is the 10th year in a row that we have seen a decrease in online freedom. So it is a trend that is not solely due to the pandemic,” says Amy Slipowitz.
“That said, the (novel coronavirus) pandemic has played an important role in many of the countries where this decline has occurred. State actors in many countries have taken advantage of the ‘opportunities’ created by the pandemic to control the narrative on the Internet. , to censor critical voices and to implement new technological control tools ”, says Slipowitz to BBC News Brazil.
“(Some governments) used the pandemic as a pretext to expand surveillance and data collection for citizens. There was also a rapid expansion of biometric and artificial intelligence mechanisms to deal with the public health crisis. And this generated new risks for democracy and human rights ”, he says.
“At the same time, some political leaders used the pandemic as an excuse to censor bad news and arrest critics; they also used ethnic and religious minorities as ‘scapegoats’ for problems,” says Slipowitz.
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