Meta, the parent company of Whatsapp, Instagram, Threads and Facebook, has announced the end of its fact-checking program in the United States, which will be replaced by a “Community Ratings” system.
With this, and similar to Elon Musk's X platform, big tech assigns the responsibility for checking content to users, who must evaluate publications, flag false information and make corrections.
The change in the verification protocol, which, since 2006, was conducted by professional agencies, was justified by the company in an official statement, this Tuesday (7).
According to Patricia Peck, CEO of Peck Advogados, a reference in Digital Law for 20 years in Brazil, the “return to roots” advocated by Mark Zuckenberg cannot be devoid of any responsibility.
“In addition to demonstrating alignment with the new US administration, the statement presented by Zuckenberg makes it clear that this same understanding should be reflected in other countries. Care must be taken to prevent political pressure from contravening current laws and compromising sovereignty in other States,” he says.
In Brazil, for example, there is a constitutional provision for the right to freedom of expression, but it must be harmonized with others, such as national sovereignty, privacy, and civil and criminal liability for any excesses. In this sense, Peck points to the risks of greater polarization and the dissemination of prejudiced and criminal content.
“In addition, there is a risk that community notes will be used artificially to benefit or harm any political, ideological or other positioning,” he explains.
With the return of the trial of the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, scheduled for the first half of 2025, the topic may be discussed by the ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
“As a rule, companies must comply with current laws and Brazilian court orders, regardless of the model adopted by corporations in their countries of origin. If we consider that there is a large volume of removals that will no longer be proactively removed from networks, we tend to see an increase in lawsuits for content removal,” concludes Peck.
