Brazil’s fact-checkers air concerns over ‘Fake News’ bill.

Last Wednesday 13 th the Brazilian lower house of congress voted against allowing the accelerated pathway for discussing a bill supposed to contain the spread of mis- and disinformation. The future of the so-called ‘Fake News’ bill is now uncertain. Among other things, the bill would bind tech companies to publish reports for each instance of content demonetisation and removal and require them to pay all journalistic operations for content on its platform. So, although it is meant to prevent the spread of inaccurate or misleading news, the bill faces resistance from tech companies and independent fact-checking organisations in the region. Both social media platforms and fact-checkers share the concern that the bill is not clear regarding the definition of journalism. Fact-checkers claim that if the bill passes they would be vulnerable to judicial abuse.