"Brazil pushes back on big tech firms' campaign against 'fake news law'", 03 May 2023

...Brazil's government and judiciary objected on Tuesday to big tech firms campaigning against an internet regulation bill aimed at cracking down on fake news, alleging undue interference in the debate in Congress.

Bill 2630, also known as the Fake News Law, puts the onus on the internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts, charging hefty fines for failures to do so.

Tech firms have been campaigning against the bill, including Google LLC, which had added a link on its search engine in Brazil connecting to blogs against the bill and asking users to lobby their representatives.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino ordered Google to change the link on Tuesday, saying the company had two hours after notification or would face fines of one million reais ($198,000) per hour if it did not...

The U.S. company promptly pulled the link, though Google defended its right to communicate its concerns through "marketing campaigns" on its platforms and denied altering search results to favor material contrary to the bill.

"We support discussions on measures to combat the phenomenon of misinformation. All Brazilians have the right to be part of this conversation, and as such, we are committed to communicating our concerns about Bill 2630 publicly and transparently," it said in a statement...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the chief executives in Brazil for Google, Meta, and Spotify to testify within five days explaining their conduct regarding the bill...

Brazil's antitrust regulator Cade said it would investigate Google and Meta's campaigns against the bill...

[Meta told UOL it would not comment on the allegations]