The Brazilian senate has given nod to an internet bill which will ensure freedom of expression and privacy of net users in the country, ahead of an international meet in Sao Paulo, which will pave way how internet will be governed in future, following US gave up oversight.
The bill is likely get backing from Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff who according to Edward Snowden’s leaks, is a victim of US snooping.
As per the new rules, internet companies like Google and Facebook will have to comply with Brazilian laws, if it involves data about the citizens of the country, even if the data is stored abroad.
New legislation, known as the "Marco Civil da Internet," or "Internet Constitution," has also provision to ensure the freedom of expression of Brazilian.
Though there will not be any liability on the service providers for the published content, but they have to taken down any offensive content if court orders so. The bill also provisions which will prevent collection of metadata of net users in the country.
Other provisions in the bill include storing of user connection data for one year such as IP addresses, taking down of nude content after request from a victim.
The bill however dropped a controversial provision which would have mandated foreign internet companies to host data in the data centre inside the country.
The provision was fiercely opposed by internet majors like Google, Twitter and Facebook saying that it will be huge cost burden on them.
The senators however refused to bow down to pressure to remove a net neutrality law which could have allowed telecom companies and service providers to charge more for content which requires higher bandwidth.
Since the Snowden revelations came out, Brazil has been vocal in criticising the US for the spying programmes, involving politicians of the country.
Following the reports, angry Dilma Rousseff called off a visit to US last year. There are also reports that US company Boeing’s lost out a fighter jet bid mainly due to Snowden revelations which indicate direct targeting of President Dilma Rousseff’s own communications.
Brazil and the EU had earlier agreed to build an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza in efforts to avoid spying by US authorities.
The $185m fibre-optic link project is designed to allow data to bypass the US, assure internet neutrality and protect Brazil’s internet traffic from US snooping activities.
Brazil has also confirmed plans to develop a secure and encrypted email service, as part of its efforts to bar foreign surveillance agencies, including NSA, from intercepting the country’s electronic communications.
