Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has signed a decree aimed at restricting the powers of social media companies to remove accounts and content.
Mr Bolsonaro said a change of regulations was needed to combat the “arbitrary removal” of profiles.
He said the new legislation would help protect freedom of speech.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Twitter and Facebook have removed many posts shared by the president and his supporters that were deemed misleading.
The new decree aims to provide clarity on the powers of social media companies to police content on their platforms, the president’s office said.
Details of the decree released so far simply state that tech giants will have to provide “just cause and motivation” before removing an account or content.
It is unclear, however, exactly the order will be enforced.
Source: Fiilafmonline/BBC
