Fake news going viral: legal responsibility on the dissemination of disinformation

Abstract

The article addresses legal responsibility about subjects related to disinformation, which has fake news as its best known form today. To this end, it presents a brief conceptualization of misinformation within the context of the information society (which also includes Floridi's (2010) 'infosphere' and Lévy's (2010) 'cyberspace'). Misinformation is delimited taking into account its history, current terminology, and its meaning, which includes two English words: disinformation and misinformation. The text mentions the role of reading and the mechanisms involved in actions to combat misinformation. It raises the question: Is the current Brazilian civil and criminal responsibility system effective to combat disinformation? The article mentions the Internet Civil Framework and articles of the Consumer Law and the Penal Code, as pertinent legislations to the theme, besides the new Law 13.834/19, which amends the Electoral Code. Although present in many countries, fake news is still a problem without a definitive solution. The discussion of responsibility focuses on content and service providers and user accounts that use massive content triggers. It concludes that current Brazilian legislation is not yet ready to effectively combat disinformation production and dissemination mechanisms. However, it emphasizes that the fight against disinformation is a complex process, also composed by other dimensions, educational mainly, and that the legal determinations must prevail for democracy, not to become an instrument of censorship.