Dictator Lula will send a bill to Congress to regulate social media.

The socialist dictator of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will send to Congress a bill aimed at regulating the operations of major social media technology companies, known as "big techs," and creating a legal framework that would allow censorship of users and opponents.

"The Brazilian government supports the regulation and oversight of these companies, which accumulate billions in profits, often at the expense of people's physical and psychological well-being," stated Chief of Staff Rui Costa in an interview with Radio Alvorada FM, in the state of Bahia (northeast).

Costa also expressed the Lula da Silva regime's concern with business owners and questioned the limited cooperation of the "big techs" with Brazilian authorities. "The richest people in the world own companies like Facebook, Instagram, and X," he noted.

According to the official, these digital platforms generate billions of dollars in revenue globally, "sponsoring, encouraging, and enabling heinous crimes such as pedophilia, child trafficking, prostitution, drug trafficking, and bank fraud."

He also emphasized that "freedom of expression is not authorization to commit crimes" and justified this authoritarian statement with the excuse that the law must punish both those who produce "illegal content" and those who "facilitate its dissemination."

"We are talking about something very dangerous. More than ever, we need to regulate, monitor, and sanction not only those who publish, but also those who facilitate the dissemination of this content. It is necessary to improve legislation to effectively deter and punish these criminal activities," he concluded.

Censorship of X

On August 30, 2024, judge-dictator Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered a ban on access to the social network X for failing to comply with censorship orders and not blocking accounts of Lula's opposition users. The resolution included fines of 50,000 reais per day for those who accessed via VPN and a ban on digital stores offering the application.

However, after harsh criticism of Lula by Brazilians, X currently operates normally in the country, although the debate over its regulation remains open.