A “notícia fora da lei” e o ataque à democracia: limites dos institutos jurídicos e dos mecanismos político institucionais no combate às fake news

Abstract

The intense circulation of fake news has become a specific issue, which is even used for political purposes. Based on this context, this monograph aims to verify which legal and political-institutional instruments are useful for combating fake news and, thus, explain the limits of these tools in the concrete field. To achieve this aim, the historical-dialectical materialist approach method, the statistical procedure method and the bibliographic and documentary research techniques are used. Data is collected from the fact-checking agency Lupa, which concerns the attack on democracy that occurred on January 8, 2023 in Brazil. As results and conclusions, it is clear that Brazil does not have specific legislation to stop the spread of fake news. Although there is a bill on the subject, it is also insufficient, there are views that propose solutions that do not combat the root of the problem: the profits of Big Techs and their intensive use for destabilization policies. It is also clear that the political institutional mechanisms are ineffective, as they amount to an attempt to verify news (and the spread of false news does not occur due to the ingenuity of the individual, but rather, due to the conscious and lively use manipulative ). Finally, this work proposes ―platform socialism‖ or ―platform cooperativism‖ as a possible solution, changes that allow the population to be protagonists in the administration of broadband networks. To achieve this, it is necessary to overcome the current structure and sociability, which prioritize profit over human needs.