The Brazilian Civil Rights

Framework for the InternetMarco Civil da Internet

Samuel BarrosPhD Candidate in Political Communication at Federal University of Bahia (UFBA)Member of the Center for Advanced Studies in Digital Democracy (CEADD)Visiting Researcher at MIT Center for Civic Media

MIT Center for Civic Media | December 11, 2014

The drafting process and some key

issues

What is the Marco Civil da Internet?

This law establishes principles, guarantees and

rights for Internet users: citizens, companies and

government. Among other topics, this

legislation establishes principles for freedom of

speech, privacy protection, log file and network

neutrality.

The Marco Civil da Internet translated to the English is available here:

https://www.publicknowledge.org/documents/marco-civil-english-version

As Tim Berners-Lee said, the Marco Civil:

[…] balances the rights and responsibilities of the

individuals, governments and corporations who use the

Internet. Of course, there is still discussion around some

areas, but ultimately the draft Bill reflects the Internet as it

should be: an open, neutral and decentralized network, in

which users are the engine for collaboration and

innovation. Commendably, the Bill has among its

foundations the guarantee of human rights such as

privacy, of citizenship and the preservation of the

diversity and the social purpose of the web.

Available at: http://webfoundation.org/2014/03/marco-civil-

statement-of-support-from-sir-tim-berners-lee/

The drafting

process of the

Marco Civil da

Internet

The project started from two online consultations carried out by the Brazilian Justice

Ministry. The consultations held in 2009 and 2010 resulted in a bill. 1827 comments were

received from citizens, but also companies, public institutions and civil society organizations.

Available at: http://culturadigital.br/marcocivil/

In August 2011, President Dilma

Rousseff sent the bill to the

Chamber of Deputies. The lower

house opened a consultation at the

platform “e-Democracia”. On this

website, it was possible to participate

in forums or make specific

suggestions for each bill’s article.

Available at: http://edemocracia.camara.gov.br/web/marco-civil-

da-internet

The bill was approved by the Senate in

April 2014. The presidential approval was

announced a day later, when happened the

NETMundial in Sao Paulo, an event to

discuss Internet governance around the

world.

Available at: http://netmundial.br/

Source: REGATTIERI, L. L.; MALINI, F.; HERKENHOFF, G. MarcoCivil:

Visualizing the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet in Brazil. 2014.

Analysis of the hashtag

"#MarcoCivil" on Twitter, between

July and December 2013:

46,55% of the network was in favor

of the vote of the law (blue

network);

17,39% was against (red network);

20,56% of tweets was posted by

media and specialists (green

network);

4,1% was posted by foreign

organizations (yellow network).

On YouTube, comedians and Internet celebrities

commented and expressed their views about the

Marco Civil. Some comments of popular people

in the SNS's contributed to the spread of this

topic to a wider audience.

During the Marco Civil legislation

process, the journalism was

especially important for two reasons:

1. To explain the purpose and

effects of the law. In the public

sphere, the journalism provided

content for a qualified

discussion;

2. To increase the visibility.

In April 2014, the Avaaz.org

opened a petition which got

300.000 signatures in 48 hours.

This initiative was supported by

the musician and former

Minister of Culture Gilberto

Gil.

Available at: http://www.avaaz.org/po/o_fim_da_internet_livre_senado/

1. What disciplines have studied this

topic (Marco Civil da Internet)?

2. In each discipline, what are the main

issues? What questions need special

attention?

Questions

Internet Governance

Results

Net Neutrality.

The main contribution of the Civil Marco da Internet

was the guarantee of net neutrality. The law recognizes

Internet connection quality as a right.

Nevertheless, the Presidency can break the neutrality in

two situations: 1) technical requirements essential to the

adequate provision of services and applications; and 2)

prioritization of emergency services. However, this

procedure should be done with transparency and equality

among users. The law does not allow the ISPs to make

contracts with content producers to offer privileged traffic.

Drafting process of legislation on Internet

via the Internet.

The drafting process of the Civil Marco da

Internet was an innovative experience in the

Brazilian context and can bring inspiration for

legislation on this subject through the same

procedure around the world.

However, it is necessary to understand how the

contributions of citizens are received by the

political system, which actors participate and

which do not participate, the plurality of

political positions represented, the publicity and

transparency.

Fundamental rights.

The Marco Civil da Internet recognized two types of

rights/principles:

i) Rights that are already guaranteed by other

laws, were reaffirmed for the Internet: freedom

of speech, protection of privacy and personal

data, human rights and business freedom.

ii) New rights that needed specific legislation:

preservation of network neutrality, preservation

of stability and security of the network,

responsibility of users, access providers and

producers according their activities.

Rights

Responsibility for content posted by

third parties.

The Marco Civil understands that

websites and applications that provides an

online environment for participation have

no responsibility for what users post. Web

sites and applications will be held liable

only if they do not take out content after a

court order.

This is important to ensure freedom of

expression. Before, for example,

newspaper sites excluded controversial

content posted by readers because they

feared lawsuits.

Users Log file.

From the point the point of view of activists,

the main problem of the Civil Marco da Internet

is the requirement to file the records of users.

ISPs must file for 1 year the connection logs (IP,

date, time), but are forbidden to save URLs. The

sites and applications must file for six months

the IP and the URLs accessed by its users.

The law states that records must be kept

confidential and security and can only be

delivered to public authorities after a court order,

but many experts consider this an abuse of

surveillance and a lack of respect for the

presumption of innocence.

Privacy (data protection)

Investment.

The Marco Civil reduces legal uncertainties,

which encourages innovation and the

development of new online businesses. The

most important issue was the recognition that

sites and applications are not responsible for

the use and content posted by its users. Before

the existence of this law, Brazilian courts made

some decisions that have hurt companies

because of illegal content posted by its users.

Economy

The Marco Civil is an example for other

countries, especially on the issue of net

neutrality. The challenge is to build a law that

respects the characteristics of each country,

while guaranteeing civil rights and promotes the

online citizenship.

Conclusion

Thank you!Samuel Barrossamuel.barros77@gmail.comsamuelb@mit.edu