CELE Legislative Observatory

News of legislative and regulatory activity, judicial and administrative decisions

ARGENTINA BRASIL CHILE PARAGUAY PERU ECUADOR COLOMBIA MEXICO GUATEMALA

Number of LATAM projects as of February 2023

COUNTRIES PROJECTS
ARGENTINA 7
BRAZIL 28
CHILE 3
COLOMBIA 14
ECUADOR 2
GUATEMALA -
MEXICO 13
PARAGUAY 2
PERU 2

Topics bills presented between August 2021 and February 2023

Access to information 6.9%
Bullying 10.3%
Apologia 5.2%
Freedom of expression 8.6%
Equality and non-discrimination 17.2%
Internet Access 1.7%
Privacy 1.7%
Protection of minors 15.5%
Reputation and honor 5.2%
Content moderation 5.2%
Gender Violence 5.2%
Indigenous rights 3.4%
Fake News 1.7%

Topics of the bills presented between August 2021 and February 2023

Access to information 4.8%
Bullying 9.5%
Apologia 4.8%
Freedom of worship 1.6%
Equality and non-discrimination 15.9%
Official advertising 4.8%
Fake News 1.6%
Protection of minors 14.3%
Reputation and honor 4.8%
Content moderation 4.8%

14/02

The National Civil and Commercial Court No. 45 issued a self-satisfactory measure requested by the host and dancer Stephanie Berardi for the media to stop broadcasting the intimate chats with the actor and presenter Federico Bal associated with an infidelity scandal. Judge Carlos Goggi determined that the chats do not fit with the assumptions of access to information and freedom of expression because it is not a matter of public interest, but rather conversations that "would eventually belong to the exclusive sphere of reserve and inviolable privacy of his person" . 

PRIVACY ACCESS TO INFORMATION

23/02

From February 21 to 23, the "Internet For Trust" Conference was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris for experts to discuss issues relevant to the regulation of digital platforms in search of the protection and promotion of human rights freedom of expression and access to information. Our Director, Agustina del Campo, He participated in the panel on "Transparency, content moderation and Freedom of expression, Multi-Stakeholder perspectives in Latin America" ​​where projection the need to define the supervision of digital platforms and to study with a magnifying glass the concept of legality and illegality for an adequate protection of human rights in the digital ecosystem.  

In this regard, there are several threads on the official CELE account at Twitter about the world conference of UNESCO. 

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Risk on the privacy of personal data controversy through the website of the Superintendence of Health Services that allows knowing the social work of each individual. Given the disagreement of the citizens for the easy access to their personal information, the entity issued a response informing that the data housed there does not violate the personal data protection law as it is not framed in sensitive data. However, the organizations have argued that despite not corresponding to this group, they are part of the privacy of citizens by being accessible without their consent. 

PRIVACY PERSONAL DETAILS

24/01

The Supreme Court orders the reactivation of the profiles of the federal deputy who published anti-democratic content. The Minister of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Alexandre de Moraes ordered the reactivation of the accounts on the social networks of the federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG). The decision, published on 27.01.01, ordered the unblocking of the deputy's profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Tik Tok, Twitter and YouTube. Court had justified the previous withdrawal as part of the fight against the violation of the integrity of the electoral process and the promotion of anti-democratic acts. The minister considered that Nikolas stopped disseminating illegal content and determined the reactivation of his profiles, maintaining the elimination of content previously judged as irregular. Moraes established that the parliamentarian must refrain from publishing, promoting, replicating and sharing fraudulent news, under penalty of a daily fine of R $10 thousand.

CONTENT MODERATION DISINFORMATION FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

26/01

Judge ratifies the demonetization of Monark's videos on YouTube. Judge Cesar Augusto Vieira, of the 44th Civil Court of the Judicial District of São Paulo, rejected a request from youtuber Bruno Aiub, known as Monark, who advocated restoring the monetization of his YouTube channel. Monark took the matter to court when Google decided to demonetize its channel after defending the creation of a Nazi party in Brazil, based on the «right to antisemitism». The ruling considered that Monark violated YouTube's policies, stating that "freedom of expression finds its limit in the legality of the propositions."

APOLOGY CONTENT MODERATION

TJ/SC directs that Facebook remove fake profiles linked to pornographic content. The 4th Civil Law Chamber of the Court of Justice of Santa Catarina (TJ / SC) confirmed the first instance decision that had forced Facebook to eliminate false profiles that improperly associated the name and image of a woman with the production of content pornographic. In addition to eliminating the false accounts, the judge ordered the platform to provide sensitive data that allows the identification of those responsible.

CONTENT MODERATION

01/02

TJ / GO determines that Facebook must compensate the institution affected by the improper deletion of the profile on Instagram. The 3rd Civil Law Chamber of the Goiás Court of Justice (TJ/GO) confirmed the first instance decision that ordered Facebook to compensate the South American College (UniFasam) for the improper removal of its Instagram account. The suspension of the profile had been justified by an alleged violation of the conditions of use and company policies for the spread of spam, but the Court considered that the conduct was not proven.

LIABILITY OF INTERMEDIARIES

08/02

Projects aim to stop the creation of the National Prosecutor for the Defense of Democracy. Representative Kim Kataguiri (União/SP) and Senator Sérgio Moro (União/PR) presented the legislative decree projects 27/2023 y 28/2023, respectively, which propose suspending the creation of the National Prosecutor for the Defense of Democracy, which would have the power to combat misinformation about public policies. The projects seek to suspend the effects of art. 2, II, and, paragraph 2, and art. 47, both from annex I of Decree 11.328, which determine the creation of the body in the structure of the Attorney General of the Union. In addition, on 09.02 the project was presented to the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies PDL 38/2023, jointly authored by representatives Adriana Ventura (NOVO/SP), Gilson Marques (NOVO/SC) and Marcel Van Hattem (NOVO/RS), with the same objective. According to the deputies, the President of the Republic exceeded his powers to regulate and organize the Public Administration. Also because the National Prosecutor for the Defense of Democracy would seek to "impose a censorship regime through arbitrary control of what is said on social networks and in the press." 

In addition, they argued that disinformation must be fought "always with more information, never with less, under penalty of curtailing freedom of expression." In this sense, Senator Sérgio Moro also stated that it would be up to Congress to define the concept of "disinformation", and that the "fight against the dissemination of fake news cannot be done against the law and outside Parliament".

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION DISINFORMATION

09/02

TJ/PR authorizes Glenn Greenwald to keep the post calling Senator Sérgio Moro corrupt. La The 8th Civil Law Chamber of the Court of Justice of Paraná (TJ/PR) decided that the journalist Glenn Greenwald (known for his collaboration with Edward Snowden in the NSA scandal) may maintain a post calling Senator Sérgio Moro a "corrupt judge" » on his Twitter account. In March 2022, a preliminary court decision had ordered the removal of the content by the platform. The Court, however, amended the order, declaring that the deletion of the post would imply censorship and injury to Greenwald's freedom of political opinion, member of the press. 

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION CONTENT MODERATION

01/02

A judge in Colombia issued a sentence written with the help of ChatGPT. The judge in charge of the case used responses generated by this artificial intelligence technology to motivate his decision in a case involving the right to health of a child with autism. Among other things, the judge asked ChatGPT if a minor with autism should be exempted from paying moderator fees or if the Constitutional Court has made decisions in similar cases. Based on these responses, the judge decided to rule in favor of the minor. The sentence was not appealed.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

15/02

Colombia had its first court hearing in the Metaverse. The Administrative Court of Magdaleno approved the realization of a court hearing in the Metaverse, which was held with the help of avatars of the parties and court officials. According to the court, holding hearings through this type of means does not imply a violation of due process. On the contrary, according to the decision, «the use of this type of immersive technology aims to make current procedural trends effective, since it allows the presence of the same virtual space, even when people are physically in another place, without leaving aside procedural guarantees and the principles of justice digital".

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

24/02

The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) denounced that intelligence agencies in Colombia are making their surveillance capabilities more sophisticated through the acquisition of spyware that would allow mass surveillance of citizens. This information was obtained through information leaked by the Guacamaya hacker collective. According to FLIP, the Colombian public force is using OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) type technologies indiscriminately.

PRIVACY

31/01

The mayor of the Pujilí canton, Cotopaxi province, Luis Ugsha issued a speech homophobic against the LGTBIQ+ community, calling them "a plague" and "a demon against God's law", he also referred to women as "Mothers with a fever". The speech was made during a rally within the framework of the 2023 sectional elections, encouraging his campaign for his re-election as mayor. 

ELECTIONS HATE SPEECH

14/02

The Government of Ecuador published a statement in which denies “abuse” of the right to freedom of expression by journalists. The foregoing, since the digital media La Posta published reports on alleged irregularities in the close circle of President Guillermo Lasso. The president assured that the report had been dismissed and archived by the Prosecutor's Office a year ago and indicated that said medium abused a confidential report. 

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

24/02

Given the nonconformity of President Guillermo Lasso with the journalistic work of La Posta, civil society organizations such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemn the speech that the president is issuing against journalists, who, in addition to being threatened by various criminal gangs, feel the lack of support from the government by encouraging violence against them.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

26/01

The organizations Article 19 and R3D disseminated the resolution of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data ordered the Secretary of National Defense to hand over all the information it has in relation to the company that is the exclusive provider of the Pegasus malware.  

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

02/02

The former head of the Technical Secretariat for Combating Torture of the Federal Institute of Public Defender announced that his cell phone was infected by the pegasus-malware

PRIVACY

03/02

The organization Article 19 urged the Governor of Sinaloa not to stigmatize the press, and gave examples of various comments made in 2022 and early 2023 in which he mentioned that the press was sold or exaggerated.  

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

08/02

R3D informs the public that in the Trial instituted against Genaro Garcia Luna, former head of the Federal Public Security Secretariat in the Federal Government from 2012 to 2018, embezzlement of surveillance equipment is detailed, allowing organized crime groups to have access to them. Some of these accusations were made known by the journalist Peniley Ramírez and by the R3D organization. 

PRIVACY

09/02

The director of the newspaper El Portal de la Noticia suffered acts of violence possibly due to news coverage on security and justice, for this reason the organization Article 19 urged the Sonora Attorney General's Office to investigate the facts, and the state and municipal governments to prevent and protect the press. 

VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS

09/02

La Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued statement No. 042/2023 in which it indicates that the right to the image itself -imitation- is protected by copyright. Said decision derives from direct injunctions 5 and 6 of 2022, in which companies were sentenced to pay a percentage of the profits derived from advertising using imitators or modifying musical work without the author's permission. 

COPYRIGHT

14/02

The Government and Population Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved a reform to the Law on Printing Crimes which increases the penalties for those who commit insults against high-ranking officials in the country, including the President of the Republic. This law, which dates back to 1916, still establishes responsibilities for the media, news outlets and printers. Likewise, the law establishes the sanction to public servants who provide data to make a prohibited publication. It is noteworthy that the Chamber of Deputies approved the repeal of this law in 2020, which has not materialized because the Chamber of Senators has not ruled on said project. For the organization Article 19, the approval of this reform contravenes the international obligations that the Mexican State has signed in the matter. 

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF THE PRESS INSULT

20/02

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued communiqué No. 055/2023 in which it is reported that the section of the Mexico City legislation that authorizes the publication of the Registry of Sexual Offenders was invalidated.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION PRIVACY

23/02

El Senate of the Republic reported in its communication No. 910 that the project to combat sexual harassment in public spaces was approved in commissions, through various adaptations in the General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence. 

GENDER

17/02

The International Federation of Journalists and the Union of Journalists of Paraguay they requested to the competent institutions to initiate an in-depth investigation to clarify the murder of journalist Alexander Álvarez, from Radio Urundey FM in Paraguay on the border with Brazil. 

VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS

06/02

The Ministry of the Interior publicly announced that there enabled an email  to receive citizen complaints for the crime of apology for terrorism on social networks. For this purpose, the complainants should attach to the message some evidence that supports their accusation, such as a photo, video, screenshot or link that leads to the publication made. This tool has generated concern about the lack of regulatory definition of the crime of apology for terrorism, as well as the possible self-censorship that would generate, even more so in a context where the mobilizations and protests against the government and Congress have been classified by some political actors as pro-terrorists.

CONTENT MODERATION FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

07/02

The case was made public Rodrigo Benites, who was the first sentenced to prison (8 years) for the crime of apology for terrorism in Peru. Benites Silva was sentenced for sharing content on his social networks that apparently extolled the figure of the terrorist Abimael Guzmán, during the 2021 electoral campaign. However, Benites' publications aimed, rather, at attacking the then presidential candidate Pedro Castillo and link him to terrorist figures like Guzmán.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

21/02

Members of the radical right-wing group La Resistencia they reached the outskirts from the houses of different journalists to publicly protest against them and insult them with megaphones and displaying offensive banners. Among the intimidated journalists are Gustavo Gorriti, director of the IDL Reporteros investigative portal, and Rosa María Palacios.

VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS