Rafael Pellon, MEF LatAm advisor and partner at Pellon de Lima Advogados shares an update on the regulatory landscape in Brazil regarding data privacy and the state of the internet, detailed in a MEF briefing on the topic, available to download now.

The Brazilian parliament is  on the final stages of the vote for the effectiveness of the Brazil Data Privacy law and at the same time discussing a new bill of law to regulate social media and marketplaces to avoid a wave of fake news to impact on the next Brazilian elections (Brazil will have municipal elections in November).

One of the main questions that can be asked in the current scenario is whether the effort to create new legislation can demonstrate a failure in the capacity to implement the existing legal regime. Internet regulation being one of the most controversial and complex issues, involving governments, civil society, internet communities and sectors of the private sector in the elaboration of principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures for the regulation of actions that may or may not be done in the network .

These are extremely complex issues to define and apply, since different expectations apply to each of the actors involved. The modern economy is directly related to information in the same way that companies in the last century were dependent on steel and large machines. Privacy is also assessed from different points of view, the same person who wants to preserve their privacy can, at the same time, consume various contents related to the privacy of others.

The path that has already been successfully taken in creating a legal framework for internet regulation and data protection in Brazil must be preserved and seen as a model of basic and technologically neutral principles, subject to the rapid changes characteristic of this environment, but that keeps the principles of protection of fundamental rights and guarantees safe.