Digital giants are suspected of using their platforms to lead a campaign against the “Fake News” Bill.
On May 2, the Office of the Superintendent-General of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) of Brazil launched a preliminary enquiry into alleged abuse of their dominant position by Google and Meta (*the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is banned and designated as extremist in Russia) related to Bill 2630, known as the ‘Fake News’ Bill.
The decision considered complaints that Google and Meta used the Google, Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram platforms improperly to lead a campaign against the bill.
US companies including Alphabet have been aggressively campaigning against the new bill, with the Google parent company placing an advertisement on its search homepage in Brazil as well as YouTube there. It also took out a full-page advertisement in the local paper Folha de S Paulo to sway public opinion.
The justice minister of Brazil, Flávio Dino, ordered Google to change the link on its homepage on Tuesday, saying the company had two hours after notification or would face fines of 1m reais ($198,000) per hour. Google promptly pulled the link, though defended its right to communicate its concerns through “marketing campaigns” on its platforms.
The bill 2630 on combating the spread of fake news is shaping up to be one of the world’s strongest laws on social media. It will be considered by parliament under an expedited procedure immediately at the plenary session, bypassing the relevant committees. It would criminalize the publication of disinformation by bots. The bill requires companies providing digital services to have a physical representative in the country, establishes responsibility for them to promote fakes created by third parties, requires transparent rules for content moderation and introduces fees for search engines for the use of journalistic material. The bill is supported by traditional Brazilian media, whose opponents are Internet companies that deny having their own interests.
The order to launch a preliminary enquiry points out how CADE is “aware of and working to avoid antitrust violations in digital markets.”
