MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian gov't creates advising group to fight hate speech

Heading the pro-bono group will be former Congresswoman Manuela D'Avila

The Brazilian Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva Thursday created a task force to fight hate speech. The announcement came after the organization Safernet reported a 67.7% increase in hate crime nationwide on social media last year.

The group is to submit a list of strategies within the next 180 days to tackle hate speech and extremism, particularly on digital platforms and social networks, and to propose public policies on human rights. The decision the create the group was made by Human Rights Minister Silvio Almeida, and published in the Diário Oficial da União (Official Gazette).

Heading the group will be former Congresswoman Manuela D'Avila and among its members -all of them pro-bono- will be youtuber and influencer Felipe Neto, of increasing notoriety within South America's largest country.

“I will be accompanied by activists, researchers, and scholars on the subject, people who have much to contribute so that Brazil becomes a global reference for confronting hate, extremism, intolerance, and violence created in these environments,” said D'Avila, a journalist whose doctoral work pioneered scholar approach against information manipulation on networks to modify public opinion from lies presented as truths.

According to Safernet, which monitors cybercrime, reports of hate crimes in networks grew 67.7% in Brazil in 2022, totaling over 74,000 incidents of a different nature and seriousness. Lula placed disinformation and the use of media as vectors of hate speech as part of his fight against former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Neto's fame increased over the past few years for his campaign demanding platforms to stop “the destruction of reputations”.

Also participating in the group will be Lawyer Camilo Onoda Caldas, Anthropologist Débora Diniz, and Folha de São Paulo's journalist Patricia Campos Mello.

The group will also include five representatives from the Human Rights Ministry, one from the National Secretariat for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights; one from the National Secretariat for the Rights of LGBTQIA+ People; one from the Office of Social Participation and Diversity; one from the Special Advisor on Social Communication; and one from the Special Council on Human Rights Education and Culture.

Other personalities will also be invited to join the group in the coming days.

Earlier this week, a letter from Lula expressing Brazil's stance on digital information was read out at the Unesco Global Conference held in Paris.