For all the controversy it generated in the U.S., Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to loosen content moderation on Facebook and other Meta Platforms products is also reverberating 6,000 miles away — in Brazil.
Meta’s new policies are seen with "great concern” by the authorities, Brazil’s Attorney General Office said after receiving a note from the company explaining the scope of the changes. Zuckerberg’s recent announcement prompted an emergency confab in the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who called the changes "extremely serious” and raised them in talks with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.
Perhaps I’m just talking my hemispheric columnist book, but Brazil is in many ways ground zero for Zuckerberg’s sudden libertarian conversion and accompanying vows to restore free expression after "too much censorship.” The country has been immersed in a complex fight against online disinformation and hate speech while building a tightly regulated digital ecosystem.
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