Brazil looking to implement rules to reduce fake news ahead of next year's election

Friday, November 10th 2017 - 00:48 UTC

Full article 25 comments

The rules for digital conduct to be expected from candidates in the presidential elections of 2018 will be a first in Brazil.

TSE is concerned about the impact from fake and has created working groups “to analyze security measures in order to guarantee voters' freedom to vote.”

As other countries and companies such as Facebook try to deal with fake news and online manipulation issues, Brazil is looking to implement rules to reduce the deluge of false stories that could mislead voters. The country's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is looking at ways to monitor fake news in next year's presidential elections as well as holding politicians accountable for fraudulent digital campaigns.

With federal elections scheduled for late September in Germany, momentum is building behind using anti-botnet laws against automated social-media accounts that churn out disinformation.

TSE is looking to update its policies - which currently do not include rules related to innovations such as campaign financing with crypto-currencies or social bots to inflate the importance of a topic - with a new set of guidelines to be released next month.

The rules for digital conduct to be expected from candidates in the presidential elections of 2018 will be a first in Brazil. According to the TSE, there is a concern about the impact that fake news may have on voters' decisions.

According to a statement from the Court, working groups were created “to analyze security measures in order to guarantee voters' freedom to vote.”

Additionally, the court stated it should “make an agreement with the technology department for the Ministry of Defense and use other subsidies to monitor the process.”

Last week, Brazilian defense minister Raul Jungmann did suggest that the Armed Forces could get involved in fake news monitoring through the Communications and Electronic Warfare Center of the Brazilian Army (CCOMGEX), however the possibility is still being technically assessed.

Categories: Politics, Brazil, International.

Top Comments

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Jack Bauer
The TSE would do well by monitoring the free political propaganda, pushed down the population's throat about 3 or 4 times per week, on prime TV time, during which the biggest lies are told by unscrupulous polticians who only care about disinforming the ignorant and filling their pockets. Getting rid of this, which costs the taxpayer R$ 1 billion per year, would be a good start.
Nov 10th, 2017 - 05:11 pm 0
DemonTree
Getting rid of fake news sounds good but who can you trust to decide what is real and what is fake? I wouldn't want to hand that power to any government.

Possibly banning bots as the article mentions would be a reasonable measure, but that would not do much to solve the problem.

@JB
Welcome back, did you have a good holiday?
Nov 10th, 2017 - 05:40 pm 0
:o))
What's going on, on a daily basis in Brasilia; boils down to nothing less than the “Fake Democracy” in action! Having said that, whatever the masses will finally get, will be the leftovers of the “Fake Justifications”, as the result of the “Fake Elections”!
Nov 10th, 2017 - 10:40 pm 0

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