On September 14th, 2021, Supreme Court Justice Hon. Rosa Weber suspended the efficacy of provisional measure No. 1.068/2021 that changes internet civil framework (Law No. 12.965/2014) and the Copyright Law (Law No. 9.610/1998) to regulate the use of social networks. The minister’s decision attends the injunction request made by political parties and Brazilian Bar Association.
In her decision, Hon. Rosa Weber highlighted the impossibility of restricting fundamental rights through provisional measures and also shown concern with the consequences of the measure. “I finally point the complexity and peculiarity of a range of issues involved in provisional measure 1.068/2021. The spread of fake news, hate speech, the attacks against institutions and democracy itself, besides the regulation to withdraw offensive contents from social media consubstantiate one of the greatest contemporary challenges to the conformation of our fundamental rights” stated the Justice.
The justice also pointed out that the decision does not prevent the return of the MP by the National Congress through an eventual negative judgment of admissibility to be formulated by the President of the National Congress.
At the end, Hon. Rosa Weber requested the President of the STF to include the ADI’s (ADIs 6991, 6992, 6993, 6994, 6995, 6996 and 6997) in an extraordinary virtual session to suspend, in full, the effectiveness of Provisional Measure 068/2021. The request was accepted and the case was included in the extraordinary virtual session of the Plenary of this Court, starting at 00h00min on 09/16/2021 and ending at 23h59min on 09/17/2021.
On the evening of September 14, 2021, the president of the Senate and the National Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco, rejected and returned the MP to the Executive Branch. The MP lost its legal effect and its processing in the National Congress was closed. Among the rules, the provisional measure would establish that there would be no exclusion, suspension neither blockage to spread the content from any user, service and profile’s functionality at social media, except from “just cause” assumptions. Whether is the case, they should be motivated and justified in advance.