Proposal by Chief of Staff Office will be discussed with ministers before going to Congress.
President Lula is expected to give final approval on Wednesday (13) to a bill regulating and sanctioning big techs for disseminating criminal content. The proposal will then be sent to Congress. In the afternoon, the president will meet with ministers to reach a consensus within his administration and finalize the text.
According to Mr. Lula, the Chief of Staff Office has been working on the draft for about two months. “Tomorrow [today], at 3 p.m., the [social media regulation] text will be on my desk to settle disagreements among ministers before sending it to Congress,” he said in an interview with BandNews FM radio station on Tuesday night (12).
The president argued that those who oppose social media regulation are precisely “the ones who make a lot of money from it.” “Free speech does not mean promoting hatred online,” he said.
“If any foreign [social media] company comes to Brazil, it will be regulated,”
Mr. Lula added.
Earlier in the day, Chief of Staff Rui Costa said it is necessary to regulate, oversee, and punish not only those who post such content but also those who enable its dissemination.
“The Brazilian government supports the regulation and oversight of these companies, which generate billions in profits, often at the expense of people’s physical and psychological integrity,”
he told Rádio Alvorada FM in Guanambi (Bahia) on Tuesday (12).
According to Mr. Costa, “more than ever, Brazil needs to regulate, oversee, and punish” these practices. In his view, regulating social media is “a matter of security.”
The issue of children's exposure on social media resurfaced in Brazil after a viral video by YouTuber Felipe Bressanim (Felca) warned about the “adultization” of children online. In response, Lower House Speaker Hugo Motta announced plans to prioritize child protection bills in Congress, calling the issue “urgent.” He created a working group to review over 60 existing proposals and present a draft within 30 days.
Motta’s move follows political unrest and aims to restore calm by focusing on a positive agenda. However, he may face pushback from opposition parties, which have previously blocked similar initiatives. Under former Speaker Arthur Lira, efforts to regulate digital platforms—such as Bill 2630/2020 and a proposed streaming regulation—were stalled by strong lobbying from big tech companies and resistance from Liberal Party lawmakers.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, bipartisan support has emerged for an Investigative Parliamentary Committee (CPI) into the sexualization of children, with backing from both Bolsonaro and Lula allies. However, launching the CPI still depends on Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. Separately, the Supreme Court has already ruled that platforms must immediately remove child abuse content without court orders, setting a higher legal standard than current legislative proposals.
Source: Valor International
