BRASLIA: Brazil on Friday gave social media giant Meta 72 hours to explain its fact-checking policy for the country, and how it plans to protect “fundamental rights” on its platforms.

Attorney General Jorge Messias told journalists his office could take “legal and judicial” measures against Meta if it does not respond in time to an extrajudicial notice filed Friday.

Citing Meta’s “lack of transparency,” Messias said the company “will have 72 hours to inform the Brazilian government of its actual policy for Brazil.” Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stunned many with his announcement Tuesday that he was pulling the plug on fact-checking at Facebook and Instagram in the United States, citing concerns about political bias and censorship.

The move has raised concerns in multiple countries, including Brazil, that are vulnerable to misinformation.

The Brazilian presidency said the changes at Meta were a key topic of discussion in a phone call Friday between Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

The leaders “agreed that freedom of expression does not mean freedom to spread lies, prejudices and insults.” Also prompting concern were Meta’s new, looser restrictions on speech concerning topics such as gender and sexual identity, announced Thursday.

According to the government’s extrajudicial notice, the new guidelines allow users to associate sexual identity with “a mental illness or abnormality” and allows “the defense of professional limitations based on gender.” “We will not allow, under any circumstances, these networks to transform the environment into a digital massacre or barbarity,” said Messias, highlighting Brazil’s strict laws protecting children and vulnerable populations.

‘Respect Brazilian legislation’

The extrajudicial notice asks for clarity on how social media algorithms will be designed “in order to unwaveringly promote and protect fundamental rights.” Brazil also wants to know what measures will be adopted to prevent gender-based violence, racism, homophobia, transphobia, suicide, hate speech and other fundamental rights issues.

The country also wants details on how complaints can be filed, and how contradictions and disinformation in the new user-generated “community notes” system will be dealt with.

“The government will not stand idly by, as you can see,” said Messias.

The decision to hand the deadline to Meta came after a government meeting overseen by Lula on the implications of the changes for Brazil.

“All companies operating in the country must respect Brazilian legislation and jurisdiction,” Lula wrote on X after the meeting.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2025