The evangelical caucus in the Chamber of Deputies is attempting to include in the Fake News Bill a license to practice homophobia.
Lawmakers want a 'guarantee' that biblical content containing offensive material against the LGBTQIA+ community, for example, will not be removed by platforms for being considered homophobic.
247 The evangelical caucus in the Chamber of Deputies is seeking to include a guarantee in the Fake News bill that content shared by its parliamentarians and followers will not be removed by platforms for being considered offensive to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Evangelical leaders met with the rapporteur of the project, Orlando Silva (PC do B-SP), this Wednesday (26) to negotiate a way to include the guarantee in the text. In return, the group is working with the opposition on a maneuver to block this proposal and replace it with another project, presented by deputy Mendonça Filho (União Brasil-PE), last Tuesday (25), more 'aligned' with the group.
The parliamentarians justify the request by arguing that "the absence of any mention of religious freedom in the text poses a serious risk to the dissemination of their beliefs on social media, by making the platforms 'co-responsible' for user posts and by opening a loophole for them to remove content considered intolerant by some social segment," highlights a news report from [source name]. newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.
According to the newspaper, the evangelical caucus in Congress cites, for example, passages from the Book of Genesis in the Bible, which discuss the creation of man and woman and highlight the importance of reproduction. These passages are frequently used by religious leaders, not just evangelicals, to reject same-sex relationships.
In the most recent version of the text, there is a mention of the religious issue. The report states: "the prohibitions and conditions foreseen in this Law will not imply any restriction on the free development of individual personality, on free expression and on artistic, intellectual, satirical, religious, political, fictional, literary or any other form of cultural manifestation, in accordance with articles 5 and 220 of the Federal Constitution," the report states.