Twitter is under fire in the biggest economy in Latin America for its lax stance on material that is thought to incite violence in schools.
Brazil accuses Twitter of allowing posts that encourage violence in schools. Authorities this week started over 500 requests to remove content and profiles that were initially rejected by Twitter, which has advocated a free-speech attitude since its acquisition by billionaire Elon Musk last year.
Due to the controversial attitude, an executive order was issued late on Wednesday that warns Twitter and other websites of fines or even a possible ban if they don’t comply. cracking down on social networking sites carrying posts celebrating the attacks after a startling rise in homicides in educational facilities across Brazil.
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After putting forward the decree in Brasilia on Wednesday evening, Justice Minister Flavio Dino declared that “a child’s life is worth more than all the terms of use in all the platforms.”
The Justice Ministry’s push comes as the country is still in shock following the murder of four children this month at a creche in the southern state of Santa Catarina, which was committed by a man brandishing a hatchet.
Investigators frequently cite the development of active online communities that praise such assaults as one of the factors contributing to the ongoing rise in school violence. Local media stated that Twitter has started removing some of the content highlighted by the Ministry of Justice as a result of pressure from Brazilian authorities.
However, it is still unknown whether Twitter will comply with the government’s request. In Brazil, occurrences of school violence were uncommon, but researchers at the University of So Paulo have counted 10 cases during the last 13 months. This year, four incidents took place.
According to Carolina Ricardo, executive director of the non-governmental organization Sou da Paz, there is a definite link between attacks and social media networks that disseminate hate speech. She stated, “There’s also a clear reference to the US cases, all recent Brazilian cases were inspired in Columbine’s, so it’s necessary to truly debate social media regulation.”
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Twitter and Brazilian authorities also had a dispute in 2021 over tweets on school violence in the state of Santa Catarina. The dispute started when a judge directed Twitter to take down tweets about a police operation at a school that resulted in the deaths of two children. The judge alleged that the posts broke the nation’s rules prohibiting the spread of violent information.
Following Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s legal policy team, which censors content in response to governmental and legal requests and evaluates law enforcement requests for user data, suffered from “massive cuts”. Since then, other members of the policy team have left on their own volitionally, leaving fewer individuals with the time or knowledge to handle requests from the government.
I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.