Social Media Democratization: A New Leadership Role for Brazil on the Global Scale?

Marianna Poyares

In his speech after his victory, President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, while addressing several issues concerning the country's domestic agenda, made a promising announcement regarding the country's return as a significant player in the international arena. "Brazil is back," he said while mentioning strategies ranging from the reactivation of regional and cross-regional alliances, such as the Mercosul, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), and the BRICS, the return to a pragmatic international affairs agenda, exemplified in his nudge towards Mercosul-EU agreement negotiations. Furthermore, President-elect Lula underscored Brazil's new role in multilateral governance as a leader in environmental protection, indigenous rights, and a green economy. Though not unexpected, the focus on these areas is a relief due to the systematic attacks and severe institutional dismantling and cooptation they suffered during Bolsonaro's government. 

However, I would like to call attention to another area of interest, announced in the same speech under the guise of addressing domestic policy, but that has an immense potential of becoming another avenue for Brazil's projection as a central player in the global arena: social media regulation. Hiding behind a facade of free speech, social media companies have avoided structural regulations in a number of countries. Presenting themselves as the public squares of our times, platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook have become the largest channels for widespread misinformation, systematic conspiracy theory production and reproduction, and ultimately for the growth of right-wing extremism around the globe. Conspiracy theories recently turned extremist groups, such as the QAnon, Le Grand Remplacement (The Great Replacement), or regional fake news, such as the erotic baby bottles during Brazil's 2018 elections, entirely dependent on social media for their popularity. 

Even if such platforms present themselves as a neutral space where ideas freely circulate and, therefore, the rise of the far right globally is merely the unavoidable outcome of the expansion of unmediated social debate, we know this is not the case. Social media is far from an unregulated public square. On the contrary, they are highly manicured enclosures, shaped by algorithms that target and shape behavior and engagement, in order to generate profit. The fact is that social media is already regulated in the sense that specific designs shape these platforms. The question is not whether social media should be regulated, but who gets to have a voice in deciding what this regulation looks like.

Brazil has one of the most progressive legislations on the internet and user data protection worldwide. The Marco Civil da Internet (Civilian Framework of the Internet), produced in 2014 and notably amongst its addendums, the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (General Law for the Protection of Personal Date), consist of an extraordinary legal framework, setting up foundational principles for internet use, as well as a comprehensive list of users' rights and guarantees. Despite the Marco's welcome and timely contribution to internet regulation, its exclusive focus on individual rights (such as the right to privacy and freedom of speech) targets some but not all the dangers to democracy. For instance, companies such as Meta and Google have been increasingly regulating hate speech and fake news content. The control–both automated and through user input and subsequent analysis–though timid, has been sufficiently disturbing to generate a flow of users to other platforms, such as Telegram, MeWe, Gab, and Rumble. 

Although content regulation has been essential for avoiding, for instance, the radicalization of so-called "echo chambers," it has been utterly ineffective in opening them up precisely because the algorithm that informs content visibility functions as an echo chamber in order to stimulate user interaction and consumption. In addition, the ability of such platforms to spread any narrative in the form of a purchased advertisement without much accountability remains unchecked. As an example, President Jair Bolsonaro, in the last days of his 2022 presidential campaign, spent in one single day 4.5 million Brazilian reais (approximately US$850,000) on YouTube advertisements. The videos did not clearly present themselves as advertisements and disseminated several lies against now President-elect Lula. 

A true democratization of social media would require, on the one hand, leveraging technology and resources that require public-private partnerships, the creation of legislation, including criminal legislation, and infrastructure for monitoring extremist content while, on the other, upholding the user's right to privacy. These two instances need not be antithetical. In fact, they can be complimentary if we look at the limitations imposed on internet conglomerates in storing personal and private data from users. Also, the encryption in individual user interaction is itself not problematic. What is worrisome is the artificial creation and growth of antidemocratic hate communities. 

In addition to user-generated content regulation, it is imperative to regulate and legislate on the distribution of paid content by these platforms, as well as on unpaid automated mass-messaging (such as in the case of mass messaging through WhatsApp). Brazil's Marco provides a terrific baseline for both. An expanded, revised, and renewed Marco would work toward safeguarding the fundamental right to privacy while transforming the internet into a more democratic space. As one of the world's largest and most progressive democracies, recently captured by social media-fueled right-wing extremism, Brazil now has the challenge, and the unique opportunity, of becoming a global leader in the democratization and regularization of social media. Hopefully this opportunity will not be overlooked.

Marianna Poyares is a Research Fellow at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, in New York City. Her research centers around new technologies of surveillance and mobility control, immigration enforcement, Human Rights and hemispheric migration.