Brazil: Bloggers question the 13 new cyber-crimes

Global Voices Advocacy » Brazil: Bloggers question the 13 new cyber-crimes

In the small hours of last Thursday, July 10, the Brazilian Senate passed the ‘Digital Crimes Bill’, which typifies the cyber-crimes punishable by law and stipulates penalties accordingly. The proposal will now be proceeding to the House of Representatives for a review of the last amendments, and the next step is its approval or veto (in full, or any of its articles).

Thanks to the pressure from many fronts, the initial draft proposed by Senator Eduardo Azeredo, which gathered unanimous rejection by the blogosphere, has been re-written for the better. The demand for user identification before they can take any action on the Internet, such as blogging, e-mailing or chatting, has been dropped, and some advances have even been made with the inclusion of an article to criminalize online racism.