Latest news with #Rio-based
India Today
12-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Brazil's court to make social media firms legally accountable for user posts
The majority of justices on Brazil's Supreme Court have agreed to make social media companies liable for illegal postings by their users, in a landmark case for Latin America with implications for U.S. top court decided to rule on two different cases to reach an understanding of how to deal with social media companies as reports of fraud, child pornography and violence amongst teenagers become rampant online. Critics warn such measures could threaten free speech as platforms preemptively remove content that could be Mendes on Wednesday became the sixth of the court's 11 justices to vote to open a path for companies like Meta, X and Microsoft to be sued and pay fines for content published by their users. Voting is ongoing, but a simple majority is all that is needed for the measure to pass. The ruling will come after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of possible visa restrictions against foreign officials allegedly involved in censoring American citizens. One such official is reportedly Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has taken measures against social media outlets he deemed to have not complied with Brazilian only dissenting Brazilian justice so far is Andr Mendona and his vote was made public last week. The court is yet to decide how such regulations will be said free speech on social media is key for the publication of information that 'holds powerful public institutions to account, including governments, political elites and digital platforms.'Justice Flvio Dino, the first to vote on Wednesday, reminded his colleagues that recent cases of school shootings in Brazil were created on social media. He read out postings by one user who said he was happy by watching families of dead children 'weeping, bleeding, dying.''I think social media have not made humanity closer to what it has produced in best fashion,' he social media proposal would become law once voting is finished and the result is published. But Brazil's Congress could still pass another law to reverse the current legislation states that social media companies can only be held responsible if they do not remove hazardous content after a court debate on regulating social networks increased in Brazil in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 riot in 2023, when supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in the capital, need to be proactive in regulating content, said Alvaro Palma de Jorge, a law professor at the Rio-based Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and need to adopt certain precautions that are not compatible with simply waiting for a judge to eventually issue a decision ordering the removal of that content,' Palma de Jorge ruling brings Brazil's approach to big tech closer to the European Union's approach, which has sought to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms automatically accountable for content on their platforms may infringe freedom of speech as they could resort to preemptively removing content, according to the Sao-Paulo based Brazilian Chamber of Digital Economy, an organization that represents sectors of the digital economy.'This type of liability favors large companies with robust legal structures, to the detriment of smaller, national players, which negatively impacts competition,' said the organization, adding that the decision may increase barriers to Watch
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Brazil's Supreme Court justices agree to make social media companies liable for user content
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The majority of justices on Brazil's Supreme Court have agreed to make social media companies liable for illegal postings by their users, in a landmark case for Latin America with implications for U.S. relations. Brazil's top court decided to rule on two different cases to reach an understanding on how to deal with social media companies as reports of fraud, child pornography and violence among teenagers become rampant online. Critics warn such measures could threaten free speech as platforms preemptively remove content that could be problematic. Gilmar Mendes on Wednesday became the sixth of the court's 11 justices to vote to open a path for companies like Meta, X and Microsoft to be sued and pay fines for content published by their users. Voting is ongoing but a simple majority is all that is needed for the measure to pass. The ruling will come after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of possible visa restrictions against foreign officials allegedly involved in censoring American citizens. One such official reportedly is Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has taken measures against social media outlets he deemed to have not complied with Brazilian law. The only dissenting Brazilian justice so far is André Mendonça and his vote was made public last week. The court is yet to decide how such regulations will be enacted. Mendonça said free speech on social media is key for the publication of information that "holds powerful public institutions to account, including governments, political elites and digital platforms.' Justice Flávio Dino, the first to vote on Wednesday, reminded his colleagues that recent cases of school shootings in Brazil were stimulated on social media. He read out postings by one user who said he was happy by watching families of dead children 'weeping, bleeding, dying.' 'I think social media has not made humanity closer to what it has produced in best fashion,' he said. The social media proposal would become law once voting is finished and the result is published. But Brazil's Congress could still pass another law to reverse the measure. The current legislation states social media companies can only be held responsible if they do not remove hazardous content after a court order. Public debate on regulating social networks increased in Brazil in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 riot in 2023, when supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in the capital, Brasilia. Platforms need to be pro-active in regulating content, said Alvaro Palma de Jorge, a law professor at the Rio-based Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university. 'They need to adopt certain precautions that are not compatible with simply waiting for a judge to eventually issue a decision ordering the removal of that content,' Palma de Jorge said. Wednesday's ruling brings Brazil's approach to big tech closer to the European Union's approach, which has sought to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms. Rendering platforms automatically accountable for content on their platforms may infringe freedom of speech as they could resort to preemptively removing content, according to the Sao-Paulo based Brazilian Chamber of Digital Economy, an organization that represents sectors of the digital economy. 'This type of liability favors large companies with robust legal structures, to the detriment of smaller, national players, which negatively impacts competition,' said the organization, adding that the decision may increase barriers to innovation. ___ Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.
Japan Today
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Brazil's Supreme Court justices agree to make social media companies liable for user content
Minister Luiz Fux, left, Google Brazil's rapporteur, talks with Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberto Barroso, during the court's resumption of social media regulation cases regarding online disinformation, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) By MAURICIO SAVARESE and ELÉONORE HUGHES The majority of justices on Brazil's Supreme Court have agreed to make social media companies liable for illegal postings by their users, in a landmark case for Latin America with implications for U.S. relations. Brazil's top court decided to rule on two different cases to reach an understanding on how to deal with social media companies as reports of fraud, child pornography and violence among teenagers become rampant online. Critics warn such measures could threaten free speech as platforms preemptively remove content that could be problematic. Gilmar Mendes on Wednesday became the sixth of the court's 11 justices to vote to open a path for companies like Meta, X and Microsoft to be sued and pay fines for content published by their users. Voting is ongoing but a simple majority is all that is needed for the measure to pass. The ruling will come after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of possible visa restrictions against foreign officials allegedly involved in censoring American citizens. One such official reportedly is Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has taken measures against social media outlets he deemed to have not complied with Brazilian law. The only dissenting Brazilian justice so far is André Mendonça and his vote was made public last week. The court is yet to decide how such regulations will be enacted. Mendonça said free speech on social media is key for the publication of information that "holds powerful public institutions to account, including governments, political elites and digital platforms.' Justice Flávio Dino, the first to vote on Wednesday, reminded his colleagues that recent cases of school shootings in Brazil were stimulated on social media. He read out postings by one user who said he was happy by watching families of dead children 'weeping, bleeding, dying.' 'I think social media has not made humanity closer to what it has produced in best fashion,' he said. The social media proposal would become law once voting is finished and the result is published. But Brazil's Congress could still pass another law to reverse the measure. The current legislation states social media companies can only be held responsible if they do not remove hazardous content after a court order. Public debate on regulating social networks increased in Brazil in the aftermath of the Jan. 8 riot in 2023, when supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in the capital, Brasilia. Platforms need to be pro-active in regulating content, said Alvaro Palma de Jorge, a law professor at the Rio-based Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university. 'They need to adopt certain precautions that are not compatible with simply waiting for a judge to eventually issue a decision ordering the removal of that content,' Palma de Jorge said. Wednesday's ruling brings Brazil's approach to big tech closer to the European Union's approach, which has sought to rein in the power of social media companies and other digital platforms. Rendering platforms automatically accountable for content on their platforms may infringe freedom of speech as they could resort to preemptively removing content, according to the Sao-Paulo based Brazilian Chamber of Digital Economy, an organization that represents sectors of the digital economy. 'This type of liability favors large companies with robust legal structures, to the detriment of smaller, national players, which negatively impacts competition,' said the organization, adding that the decision may increase barriers to innovation. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Daily Mirror
04-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Cristiano Ronaldo responds to Club World Cup transfer offer as agent holds talks
Cristiano Ronaldo's contract with Al-Nassr will expire this month and the Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus legend could sign for a team competing at the Club World Cup Cristiano Ronaldo has rejected the chance to play for Brazilian giants Fluminense at the Club World Cup. FIFA president Gianni Infantino is desperate for the 40-year-old Portuguese superstar to pit himself against Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Ousmane Dembele in the first expanded tournament that kicks off in the United States later this month. There were stories last month that a Brazilian club had approached Ronaldo about joining them. Now Fluminense president Mario Bittencourt has confirmed that he contacted the striker's agent Jorge Mendes to offer Ronaldo a passport to the tournament - only to be told that Ronaldo isn't interested. Bittencourt said: "I have a relationship with Jorge. Not a very close one but, if I call him, he answers. "I asked him if there was any chance of Cristiano playing in the Club World Cup. He was very clear in telling me that he's not interested in playing in Brazil for now." Former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus ace Ronaldo is currently engaged in negotiations about extending his bank-busting £3.2million-a-week contract with Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr. Messi will play for Inter Miami at the tournament after the MLS club were controversially given a place in the tournament because the USA is hosting the £1billion event. Infantino wants Ronaldo to join his big rival in a bid to boost interest in a competition that has been widely criticised for adding to an already busy football calendar. The FIFA president told YouTuber and streamer IShowSpeed: "Ronaldo might play for one of the teams as well at the Club World Cup. There are discussions. " Cristiano Ronaldo might play in the Club World Cup, yeah. There are discussions with some clubs, so if any club is watching and is interested in hiring Ronaldo for the Club World Cup… who knows, who knows." Should another club sign Cristiano Ronaldo? Let us know your pick in the comments section. Manchester City and Chelsea have the chance to bank the £100m that will go to the winners. Rio-based Fluminense have been drawn against Borussia Dortmund, Korean club Ulsan and Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa. Botafogo manager Renato Paiva was asked about the prospect of signing Ronaldo and replied: " Christmas is only in December. But if he came, you can't say no to a star like that. "I don't know anything - I'm just answering the question. But, as I said, coaches always want the best. Ronaldo, even at his age, is still a goal-scoring machine. In a team that creates chance after chance, he would be good."
Euronews
29-05-2025
- Euronews
Friends complete book of environmental journalist killed in the Amazon
After British journalist Dom Phillips was killed while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world's largest rainforest, friends vowed to finish the project. Three years later, their task is complete. 'How to Save the Amazon' published yesterday (28 May) in Brazil and the UK ahead of its US release on 10 June. It was pieced together by fellow journalists who immersed themselves in Phillips' notes, outlines and the handful of chapters he'd already written. The resulting book pairs Phillips' own writing with others' contributions in a powerful examination of the cause for which he gave his life. In addition to the core group who led the work on finishing the book, other colleagues and friends helped to edit chapters, including AP journalists Fabiano Maisonnave and David Biller. Phillips, who had been a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper, was taking one of the final reporting trips planned for his book when he was gunned down by fishermen on 5 June 2022, in western Amazon's Javari Valley. Also killed was Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert on Indigenous tribes who had made enemies in the region for defending the local communities from intruding fishermen, poachers and illegal gold miners. Their deaths made headlines around the world. Nine people have been indicted in the killings. 'It was just a horrifying, really sad moment. Everybody was trying to think: How can you deal with something like this? And the book was there,' said Jonathan Watts, an Amazon-based environmental writer for The Guardian who co-authored the foreword and one of the chapters. With the blessing of Phillips' widow, Alessandra Sampaio, a group of five friends agreed to carry the project forward. The group led by Watts also included Andrew Fishman, the Rio-based president of The Intercept Brasil; Phillips' agent, Rebecca Carter; David Davies, a colleague from his days in London as a music journalist; and Tom Hennigan, Latin America correspondent for The Irish Times. 'It was a way to not just feel awful about what had happened, but to get on with something. Especially because so many of Dom's friends are journalists,' Watts said. 'And what you fall back on is what you know best, which is journalism.' By the time of his death, Phillips had travelled extensively across the Amazon and had completed an introduction and nearly four of the 10 planned chapters. He also left behind an outline of the remaining chapters, with different degrees of detail, and many pages of handwritten notes, some of them barely legible. 'I think it's fair to say even Dom didn't yet know what he would do exactly in those chapters,' Watts said. Phillips was searching for hope. He promised his editors a character-driven travel book in which readers would get to know a wide-ranging cast of people living in the area, 'all of whom know and understand the Amazon intimately and have innovative solutions for the millions of people who live there.' The group led by Watts selected writers for the remaining chapters, with subjects ranging from a bioeconomy initiative in Brazil's Acre state to global funding for rainforest preservation. Indigenous leader Beto Marubo of the Javari Valley was recruited to co-write an afterword. The team also launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to pay for more reporting trips. Among the group's challenges was ensuring that the book reflected a political shift in Brazil's approach to the Amazon in the years since Phillips' death. Most of Phillips' research was done during the term of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as Brazil's Amazon deforestation reached a 15-year high in 2021. The pace of destruction slowed after Bolsonaro's 2022 defeat by leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Throughout the finished book's more than 300 pages, fragments of hope mix with grim realities. In Chapter 2, 'Cattle Chaos,' Phillips notes that 16 per cent of Brazil's Amazon has already been converted to pasture. Even a farmer who has become a model for successfully increasing productivity without clearing most of his land is criticised for his widespread use of fertilisers. In his chapter on bioeconomy, journalist Jon Lee Anderson visits a reforestation initiative where Benki Piyãko, an Ashaninka leader, promotes environmental restoration coupled with ayahuasca treatment and a fish farm. But the veteran reporter doesn't see how it can be scalable and reproducible given man-made threats and climate change. Later in the chapter, he quotes Marek Hanusch, a German economist for the World Bank, as saying: 'At the end of the day, deforestation is a macroeconomic choice, and so long as Brazil's growth model is based on agriculture, you're going to see expansion into the Amazon.' In the foreword, the group of five organizers state that 'Like Dom, none of us was under any illusion that our writing would save the Amazon, but we could certainly follow his lead in asking the people who might know.' But in this book stained by blood and dim hope, there is another message, according to Watts: 'The most important thing is that this is all about solidarity with our friend and with journalism in general.' The European Union and six of its member states formally ratified the United Nations treaty to protect the high seas on Wednesday in New York. This international agreement is seen as a critical opportunity to safeguard parts of the ocean that lie beyond national maritime borders. The latest wave of ratifications comes ahead of the landmark UN Ocean Conference, scheduled to take place in Nice, France, in early June. EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis, described the move as a 'historic step towards protecting the world's oceans and preserving the delicate balance of our planet's ecosystem.' Ratification means that the EU and the six individual member states have formally agreed to the treaty becoming binding international law. This often involves aligning national legislation with what the treaty outlines. In April, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive that would transpose the High Seas Treaty into European law. The High Seas Treaty has the potential to bring about a significant shift in global ocean conservation efforts. Areas beyond national jurisdiction -including the high seas and seabed -cover nearly two-thirds of the world's oceans. These regions face increasing threats from pollution, overexploitation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Currently, only about 1 per cent of the high seas is protected. Following years of negotiations, a global consensus on the need to protect the high seas was reached in March 2023. The text of the treaty was formally adopted in June 2023 at the UN headquarters in New York. The agreement paves the way for protecting marine life in areas outside of national maritime boundaries. It allows for the creation of marine protected areas and supports the global goal of safeguarding at least 30 per cent of the world's oceans by 2030. Classified as a 'mixed agreement,' the treaty needs to be ratified by both the EU and its individual member states separately. On Wednesday, Cyprus, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, and Slovenia joined the EU in submitting their ratification. France and Spain had already ratified the treaty earlier this year. To come into force, the treaty requires ratification by 60 parties. With these latest additions, the number of ratifications has reached 28. A total of 115 countries have signed the treaty, indicating their potential commitment to ratification. The EU is urging all remaining parties to ratify the agreement without delay, in the hope of securing the 60 ratifications required for it to enter into force by the time of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice. Nathalie Rey, European Regional Coordinator for the High Seas Alliance, described the EU's action as a 'powerful acceleration' toward meeting the ratification threshold just days before the summit. 'EU leadership is essential in confronting the biodiversity and climate crises. This bold move sends a clear message that ocean protection is not optional - it's a global priority,' she said.
