BRASILIA: Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, who last year had led the Supreme Court decision that temporarily suspended social media platform X in the country, said on Wednesday tech firms would need to comply with laws in order to keep operating in Brazil.
Although he did not name any company, Moraes remarks come a day after Meta announced through a video of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg it would scrap its US fact-checking programme and reduce curbs on discussions around contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity.
Read more: No more fact-checking on Facebook – what does it mean for you?
At an event marking two years of riots in Brazil against institutions, including the Supreme Court, Moraes said the nation’s top court will not allow technology companies to exploit their use of hate speech for profit.
“In Brazil, (the companies) will only continue to operate if they respect Brazilian legislation, regardless of the rant of Big Tech managers,” Moraes said.
Last year, social media platform X was suspended in Brazil for more than a month for its failure to comply with the court orders, including some related to moderation of hate speech.
The decision to suspend X came first from Moraes, as Brazil’s Supreme Court judges are able to exercise sweeping powers to make unilateral decisions, but later it was unanimously backed by a five-member panel of the court.
X owner and billionaire Elon Musk at the time denounced Moraes’ orders as censorship and called the judge a “dictator”. Later, X complied with the court demands, including blocking some accounts, in order to resume its service in Brazil.
Also on Wednesday, Brazilian prosecutors ordered Meta to clarify whether the changes to its fact-checking programme in the United States will also be applied to the South American country.
Meta, which declined to comment through its office in Brazil, was given 30 days to provide a response, a document seen by Reuters showed.
Read more: TikTok’s fate divides Trump and fellow Republicans
The prosecutors said the order for further details was related to an ongoing probe of the actions taken by social media platforms to combat misinformation and violence online in Brazil.