Over 180 Brazilian civil society organizations, such as the Brazilian and South American Regional Office of Article 19, Conectas, Aláfia Lab, Idec, and Global Justice, have published a public note criticizing the recent announcement by Mark Zuckerberg about changes to content moderation in Meta platforms. These new measures, which include replacing fact-checkers with “community notes” and reducing moderation filters, were described as a major step backwards.
This public statement was organized by the Network Rights Coalition (Coalizão Direitos na Rede). Read the document in full at this link.
According to the member entities, the proposal deals a blow to efforts against misinformation, hate speech and online violence, jeopardizing vulnerable groups and weakening attempts to secure democracy in the digital space. The note also calls out Meta’s alignment with economic and political interests, to the detriment of a safer and more inclusive Internet.
“This is a crucial moment. The future of digital space depends on our collective ability to withstand backwards movements and move towards a people and planet-centered form of digital governance”, an excerpt of the document reads.