Brazil slams Meta fact-check shift as bid to 'serve' Trump
by AFP Staff Writers
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Jan 7, 2025
The Brazilian government on Tuesday criticized social media giant Meta's move to weaken its content moderation policies, describing it as a willingness to serve incoming president Donald Trump's "agenda."

The South American country's Supreme Court has taken a strong stance on regulating social media platforms.

Last year, it blocked Elon Musk's X platform for 40 days for failing to comply with a series of court orders against online disinformation.

Brazil's secretary of digital policies, Joao Brant, wrote on X that Meta's decision signaled an alliance with "the US government to confront the European Union, Brazil and other countries that seek to protect rights in the online environment."

In his announcement ending Meta's US fact-checking program, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would "work with President Trump to push back against foreign governments going after American companies to censor more."

Zuckerberg took particular aim at Europe for "institutionalizing censorship" and "secret courts" in Latin America "that can order companies to quietly take things down."

Brant said the comment was a direct reference to Brazil's Supreme Court.

He said Meta had signalled "it is willing to serve as a platform for Trump's agenda."

He also criticized Meta's plans to reverse a 2021 policy that reduced political content, calling it "an invitation to far-right activism."

"The statement is explicit. It signals that the company does not accept the sovereignty of countries over the functioning of the digital environment, and foreshadows actions that will be taken by the Trump administration."

Brant said Zuckerberg's announcement "only reinforces the relevance of actions underway in Europe, Brazil and Australia, involving all three branches of government."

Meta's announcement was, however, welcomed by the camp of Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been barred from seeking office until 2030 for spreading false information about the country's voting system.

"The Trump effect has only just begun and many other facts will be reviewed. The left will succumb," Bolsonaro's son, MP Eduardo Bolsonaro, wrote on X.

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