MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's STF Chief Justice insists there are legal instruments against fake news

Citizens need “to be well informed before expressing” their preference when voting, Fux argued

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) Chief Justice Luiz Fux said Wednesday that spreading information known to be false during the election period is a threat to the democratic system. For him, Brazil has instruments to combat “head-on” this risk.

The magistrate insisted during a seminar on the subject at the STF headquarters in Brasilia that a legal response to that matter is provided for in the current civil, criminal and electoral legislation. “Brazil is a country that, watching over its democracy, of the government by the people and for the people, prohibits fake news,” Fux explained.

He added there was also a need for “informational smoothness” and that citizens needed “to be well informed before expressing” their preference when voting.

STF Justice Luís Roberto Barroso also pointed out in his speech that Brazil was going through “a delicate moment in democracy”, and that authoritarian populism seeks to make use of “disinformation, hate, offense, and conspiracy theories.”

The STF took part in a seminar on fake news and freedom of speech, co-organized with the German Embassy. The Europan country's Constitutional Court Justice Sibylle Kessal-Wulf also delivered a speech.

Despite all announcements indicating otherwise, technicians from the Armed Forces went Wednesday to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in Brasilia to inspect the source codes of the electronic ballot box and electronic voting systems. They held meetings with technicians from the Electoral Justice Department, after which they were due to inspect the TSE's facilities in search of source code glitches.

The inspection came after Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira sent a note Monday to the TSE demanding to have “very urgent” access to the data. The TSE replied that access to all source codes used in Elections 2022 have been available since October last year for those overseeing the electoral process, including the Armed Forces. Since the 2020 municipal elections, the TSE has been expanding the list of entities that can have free access to the source codes of the electronic voting system, developed by the Electoral Justice's own programmers. (Source: Agencia Brasil)