Brazil tightens social media rules after attacks on schools

Justice Minister Flávio Dino explained during a press conference that this new regulation requires social media companies to be stricter on content, to control the level of “threat” and to cooperate “immediately” with the police for correct “identification”. including by “dangerous” users.

He acknowledged that he had encountered some resistance from Twitter officials, but explained that this had already been surpassed, stressing that any non-compliance would be punishable by fines and even an internet ban.

“We see that there is an extraordinary situation that causes attacks or threats as well as panic in families and school communities” and “in this context it has been decided to take practical, concrete” and “specific” measures to this end. told about the content that poses a threat to schools.

There have been four attacks on primary schools in the past four weeks, and at least one of them is said to have been promoted by students affiliated with internet groups that glorify what the government calls “school massacres.”

The most serious of these attacks, which killed several people, took place in the southern town of Blumenau. Here, a 25-year-old man broke into a children’s room with an axe, killing four children and injuring four. .

Similarly, a spate of threats to schools has been reported in almost all parts of the country, and each case has been communicated through social networks or messaging services.

Read more: Four children killed in kindergarten attack in Brazil

In light of this “emergency,” Dino said he had met with officials from the country’s social media platforms to consider new regulations, insisting that he was offered “full cooperation” in any case.

However, he explained that “it’s not enough to say they are willing to comply with these regulations” as these new measures are part of the laws regulating the internet in the country and “must be followed”.

These “companies are service providers and have political, social and legal responsibilities for choosing content,” says Dino, and thus “influence what happens on the Internet.”

That same week, the government had already tightened security around schools and ordered an investigation into the actions of “Nazi and neo-Nazi” groups suspected of being behind the attacks, expressed through social media.

Dino acknowledged that it was suspected that these groups may have planned attacks for the Columbine school massacre that took place in the United States on April 20, 1999, the “birthday of (Adolf) Hitler.”

Source: EFE.

Source: Ultimahora

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