20Judiciary interference is at the heart of Brazil’s poor performance in the new internet freedom ranking FreedomNet, developed by Freedom House. The organization has been monitoring democracy around the world since 1941, and annually publishes an analysis of the state of access, content manipulation and other characteristics of the web in several countries. 5y3449
Brazil slightly improved the score compared to the previous year (32 to 33 out of 100). However, the internet in the country continues to be considered as “partially free”. Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Ukraine and Libya obtained similar scores. The USA, Canada, Argentina and South Africa were some of the nations with better performance than Brazil on the list.
During the last year, four cases caught the attention of the entity and were essential for the new bad position in the ranking. All are related to lawsuits against Internet s, services or professionals.
O report mentions requests for removal of online content by candidates during municipal elections. He also cites the blocks to WhatsApp and the threat of blocking to Facebook on of a satirical fanpage. All actions were interpreted by Freedom House as a reason for the poor evaluation of Brazil.
Another case denied by Freedom House was the arrest of blogger Eduardo Guimarães, arrested by Lava Jato in March. The professional was taken to provide clarification on leaked information related to the investigation of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The organization also mentions the censorship applied by a judge to the newspapers Folha de São Paulo and O Globo. In February 2017, the vehicles published articles about a person who was trying to extort First Lady Marcela Temer. Later, the author withdrew the complaint against the newspapers. However, she did not prevent the event from triggering Freedom House's alert.
In total, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI) ed 606 requests to remove online content. They were filed in court by politicians, parties and of the Public Ministry.
“Internet freedom in Brazil remains constrained by violence against independent bloggers, criminal defamation laws, restrictions on anonymity, and restrictive limits on election-related content” – Freedom House.
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Brazil also performed poorly in the internet access ranking, another point assessed by the Freedom Net report. According to Freedom House, “Mobile Internet penetration rates have increased steadily in Brazil, but significant regional disparities in access persist”. In this regard, WhatsApp blocks further limited access to online content. In a score that goes from zero to 25, Brazil obtained only eight points.
In relation to the internet market, the analysis points to a high degree of concentration of services by a handful of companies – more specifically, Vivo, TIM, Claro and Oi, which held 98% of s in the country during the analyzed period. An eventual merger of one of these companies, highlights the organization, would reflect in an even greater centralization in the offer of internet signal – and a consequent drop in the evaluation.
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The presence of fake news was not excluded from the analysis of the Brazilian internet carried out by Freedom House. The report specifically cites a Buzzfeed News post. In November 2016, the vehicle revealed that fake news about Lava Jato were shared more on Facebook than real articles.
The organization also mentions a study conducted by the Universities of Oxford and Washington on bots. One of the cases that drew the most attention involved the discovery of 3.500 fake s created to viralize negative hashtags on Twitter about the politician Marcelo Freixo. At the time, Freixo was running for mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
