Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google found themselves before the Brazilian Supreme Court Tuesday defending a law that says internet companies are not responsible for the content users post.
The US tech titans are appealing a 2017 lawsuit from a woman in the country who called on Meta’s Facebook to remove a profile and sued for compensation.
The case centers around an article in a 2014 law governing internet regulation that says platforms can only be held responsible for users’ posts if they fail to comply with a court order to remove it.
Rodrigo Ruf, a lawyer for Meta unit Facebook Servicos online do Brasil Ltda, defended the article.
To hear him tell it, declaring it unconstitutional would increase removals of subjective content, including critical content that is important for democratic public debate. It is also unclear what the standard for removing content would look like if the article is overturned.
However, social media companies are under increased scrutiny in Brazil due to huge amounts of political disinformation.
Take the 2022 presidential election, which saw leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeat Jair Bolsonaro. Social media at the time was marred by heaps of misinformation that compelled pro-Bolsonaro rioters to invade buildings in an attempt to overturn the result.
Last month, Brazil’s government said it plans to regulate internet platforms to reduce information as well as tax those making money from advertising.
Meta, for its part, claims to have complied with hundreds of court orders, rejected 135,000 election ads and removed more than 3 million posts for violent content or for inciting violence and hate speech, including posts calling for a military coup and subverting democracy.
Google-owned YouTube also removed more than a million videos that violated its policies against misinformation, hate speech, violence, harassment and child safety. In the same period, Google received just 1,700 requests for the removal of content from its products.
WhatsApp for business
Also in Brazil, Meta began the rollout Tuesday of a payments tool for small- and medium-sized firms through its WhatsApp messaging platform.
The move is part of Meta’s strategy to use the Brazilian market as a test space for business messaging. The ultimate goal is to grow business messaging revenue in order to mitigate a slowing advertising business.
The service, provided in partnership with payment processors including MercadoLibre's Mercado Pago, Itau Unibanco's Rede and Cielo, will let WhatsApp users make purchases and payments directly through the app with credit and debit cards from Mastercard and Visa, Meta said in a statement.
Initially, the tool will be available only to some merchants that use WhatsApp Business, but large business clients of WhatsApp's API will be able to receive payments in the future, the company added.
Personal WhatsApp users in Brazil have been able to make payments between users through the app since 2021. Last year, Meta launched a commercial directory for WhatsApp in the country, allowing users to find companies with business messaging accounts.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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