Brazil Judge Orders Google to Testify Over Fake News Bill

(Bloomberg) -- A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday ordered top executives from Google, Meta and Spotify to appear before the country's federal police to testify about a public campaign against pending legislation that takes aim at so-called fake news.

Google on Monday ramped up its efforts to stop the bill, which seeks to clamp down on the spread of online disinformation and hate speech and was on the cusp of a potential Tuesday evening vote in Brazil's lower house of congress. The company posted a message to its landing page warning Brazilian users that the legislation “could make your internet worse.”

The text linked to a company statement that outlined its opposition to the legislation, which has slowly wound its way through congress over the last three years. The bill would slap steep penalties on popular platforms that fail to moderate illegal content, as well as fees for using material from journalistic outlets. Companies say the effort poses serious risks to free speech and internet access and have tried to rally lawmakers and regular Brazilians against its passage.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Google to stop the campaign and directed executives from the three companies to provide testimony within the next five days. The order covers Spotify and Meta, he said, because Google also campaigned against the legislation on those platforms.

Google said in a statement that it believes “the bill and its impacts need to be debated in a broader way by Brazilian society.” 

Spotify said in a statement that while it does not run political ads in Brazil, a “third-party advertisement mistakenly ran and was then taken down after the error was detected.” A representative for Meta declined to comment.

Democracies across the world have struggled against a flood of online attacks and vitriol, but authorities in Brazil have taken drastic steps in recent years in the name of protecting the integrity of the country's institutions. 

Read more: Brazil Court Orders Ban on Telegram Over Neo-Nazi Content

Moraes, who issued Tuesday's decision, is leading a wide-reaching investigation the spread of fake news. In the lead up to last year's presidential election, the probe ensnared former president Jair Bolsonaro — and many of the far-right leaders' allies — for sharing debunked claims about vote stealing and side effects of Covid-19 vaccines.

Since taking power on Jan. 1, the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sought tighter rules on tech companies if they fail to rein in illegal content.

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