Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet

Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (in Portuguese: Marco Civil da Internet, officially Law No 12.965) is the law that governs the use of the Internet in Brazil, through forecasting principles, guarantees, rights and duties to those who use the network as well as the determination of guidelines for state action.

The draft bill was approved by the Brazilian Congress Câmara dos Deputados on March 25, 2014 and was submitted to the Senado Federal.[1] The Marco Civil was approved by the Senado Federal on April 22, 2014[2] and sanctioned by president Dilma Rousseff on April 23, 2014, at the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance.[3]

History

The project was created by means of a partnership between the Ministry of Justice Ministério da Justiça and the Center for Technology and Society of the Law School at the Fundação Getulio Vargas, at the time directed by professor Ronaldo Lemos. Both institutions launched on October 29, 2009 the first draft phase of a collaborative process to build the draft for the Marco Civil. The Marco Civil is aimed at protecting privacy rights, net neutrality, safe-harbors for internet service providers and online service providers, open government, and setting forth that access to the internet is a requisite to the exercise for civic rights.

The first round of the draft took place between October 29 and December 17, 2009. More than 800 substantive contributions were received, including comments, e-mails, alternative drafts and references. The conception of the Marco Civil was originally created by professor Ronaldo Lemos, in an article published on May 22, 2007.[4]

Following the first round of discussions, the draft was published for public comments, throughout a collaborative process. The debates of the second phase took place between April 8 and May 30, 2010.

On August 24, 2011,[5] the draft bill was not only approved by the Executive Government in Brazil through the Brazilian Presidency, but also sent to Congress by President Dilma Rousseff, with the support of four other Ministries (Justice, Science & Technology, Planning, and Communications). In Congress, the draft bill was received and processed under docket number 2126/2011.

The Marco Civil was described by the then Ministry of Justice, Luiz Paulo Barreto as "The Constitution of the Internet"[6] in Brazil.

The project was scheduled to be voted on several times in November 2012.

An English/Portuguese translation, with changes marked in the Portuguese, was published circa November 18, 2013.[7]

As a reaction to the allegations of NSA monitoring Brazil's telecoms networks, passing the Marco Civil (which is often called "The Internet Constitution" in Brazil) has become a priority reaction for the Brazilian Government,[8] as affirmed by President Dilma Rousseff during her speech to the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, on September 24, 2013.[9]

A unofficial translation into English was made available by Paulo Rená in March 2014.[10]

Controversy

The Marco Civil project did not avoid controversy. Federal Police and State Prosecutors say the bill is unconstitutional and several jurists questioned its applicability.[11]

Another controversial point includes the fact that the final text does not even remotely resemble the text debated by the public since 2009. The original text included provisions for government control of the Internet, such as item 1.2.3 which questioned "the level of freedom of speech" that should be acceptable online without "government tutoring". The 2010 draft is completely different from the 2009 text that was originally proposed. Further still, the actual text that was later passed into law is completely different from the 2010 text put forward for public discussion.

Adding to the controversy, in December 2015 a clause in Marco Civil was used to block WhatsApp in Brazilian territory.[12] The decision to overrule the WhatsApp ban was not based on Marco Civil and it is claimed the new legislation did little to protect users against state censorship.[13]

English Version of the approved Marco Civil

The approved law was translated into English by Carolina Rossini and distributed to all participants of the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance. This final version of April 2014 is available at publicknowledge.org.

References

  1. ↑ Pereira, Paulo Celso; Jungblut, Cristiane (25 March 2014). "Câmara aprova Marco Civil da Internet e projeto segue para o Senado". O Globo (in Portuguese). Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ Mari, Angelica. "Brazil passes groundbreaking Internet governance Bill". ZDNet. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  3. ↑ "The Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet". FGV Direito Rio. May 9, 2014. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ Lemos, Ronaldo. "Internet brasileira precisa de marco regulatório civil". Universo Online (in Portuguese). Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Governo apresenta proposta do Marco Civil da Internet ao Congresso Nacional". Agência Brasil (in Portuguese). Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Barreto defende criação de 'Constituição' da Internet". G1 (Rede Globo) (in Portuguese). May 13, 2010. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  7. ↑ "Substitutive Bill Proposal to Bill No. 2,126, from 2011" (PDF). Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  8. ↑ Mari, Angelica (July 10, 2013). "Internet Constitution becomes priority for Brazilian government". ZDNet. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  9. ↑ "General Debate of the 68th Session - Brazil". General Assembly of the United Nations. September 24, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Marco Civil da Internet Unofficial English Translation". March 28, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Delegados da Polícia Federal dizem que Marco Civil é inconstitucional". g1.globo.com (in Portuguese). 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  12. ↑ "São Paulo Court of Justice - Justiça determina bloqueio do aplicativo WhatsApp", Comunicação Social TJSP, São Paulo Court of Justice, 16 December 2015
  13. ↑ "Desembargador libera acesso ao WhatsApp em todo o país.", Rafael Waltrick, Gazeta do Povo Newspaper, 17 December 2015


External links

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