Brazilian expert will defend PL from Fake News at Nobel Prize summit

The campaign director of the NGO Ekō, Flora Rebello Arduini, will defend the need for approval of the Fake News Bill by the Brazilian Congress during the summit on disinformation organized by the Nobel Foundation in Washington, in the United States, this Wednesday (24 ).

This will be the first global summit on fake news promoted by the foundation responsible for managing and delivering the Nobel Prizes and the US National Science Association. Eleven Nobel laureates are going to participate in the event that should propose solutions to the problem.

Based in London, United Kingdom, Arduini will be the only Brazilian present at the summit as a debater. She states that the regulation of the so-called big techs and social networks is the fundamental basic pillar for the existence of a healthy digital environment.

“PL 2630 is extremely important. We can no longer give platforms the benefit of the doubt”, says she, who works at Ekō – an organization focused on accountability for the impacts generated by large companies on human rights and the environment.

According to her, the proposed law brings very important concepts and focuses on three pillars: transparency in networks, due diligence and control over companies and how to address advertising on these platforms. “Addressing these three pillars, you address the industry in a systemic way, how it works”, she says.

The specialist believes that it is important to bring the Brazilian discussion to this important global forum. “Let’s get out of this axis (discussions on network regulation in) Europe-United States and bring other voices to the debate. This is important because the platforms, the social networks, they have a very strong focus on guaranteeing the least possible respect for the laws of the Global North. But they leave a huge gap on how to respect national laws (elsewhere),” she says.

Arduini believes that the majority of those present at the summit will defend regulation as essential for the defense of democracy and users’ rights. She strongly refuted arguments from people who are against the regulation and claim that a law in this sense would limit freedom of expression. “It’s a lie, that. Restricting freedom of expression means leaving (the decisions and rules of social networks) in the hands of executives. (They decide) what can what can’t be said on the platforms. They have full control of what goes in and out (from the networks) and what content they take down. Yes, it is a restriction of freedom of expression”, she says.

The disinformation expert says that, in addition to regulation, it is still necessary to pay attention to two other “pillars” to defend a democratic and healthy digital environment: creating education programs for young people and valuing professional journalism, which works as an antidote against the fake news.

Dome

The summit, called Truth, Trust and Hope Nobel Prize Summit (Nobel Prize Summit on Truth, Trust and Hope, in a free translation) will take place in Washington, capital of the United States, between the 24th and 26th of May.

The executive director of the Nobel Foundation, Vidar Helgesen, explained, in an exclusive interview with CNN the interest of the entity in the matter.

“We have a global situation where misinformation and distrust in science creates challenges for all Nobel Prize disciplines. Science is about the search for truth. The literature is about a different kind of truth-seeking and free speech. And disinformation can undermine peace and stability within countries and between countries,” he said.

Marcia McNutt, president of the US National Academy of Sciences, says “the truth has never mattered more than it does today.” “We saw this in terms of the death toll from the pandemic. We’ve seen it in terms of the outcomes of political races, which are being manipulated in one direction or another through disinformation,” she says.
The summit will discuss several different proposals to reduce the impact of misinformation among people.