Brazil introduces AI tool to monitor anti-LGBTQ+ online content, potentially leading to criminal charges
The platform’s coordinator, Jean Muksen, outlined that its main purpose is to continuously monitor online profiles and submit content for examination
By Aaron Sugg
Brazil has launched a state-backed AI system named Platform of Respect to monitor and prosecute individuals who post online content deemed anti-LGBTQ+.
The system, using an AI tool named Aletheia, scans social media, blogs and news sites for “disinformation” or hate speech, including offensive statements about biological sex.
Funded partly by trans politician Erika Hilton, the platform flags content for legal review, potentially leading to criminal charges.
Holding authors legally accountable to disinformation or hate speech against LGBTQ+ people
According to Brazilian news outlet Gp1, Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights, in partnership with the NGO Aliança Nacional LGBTI+, launched the platform to hold authors legally accountable for disinformation or hate speech against LGBTQ+ people.
During the launch on 16 September, the platform’s coordinator, Jean Muksen, outlined that its main purpose is to continuously monitor online profiles and submit content for examination.
The AI tool braught together legal and communications professionals, such as lawyers and journalists, who worked over 18 months to combat fake news agenda.
“We created a platform with several artificial intelligence tools that continuously monitor pages, profiles, websites, and blogs,” Muksen said.
Muksen explained that the technology is designed to analyse discourse, intentions, and linguistic nuances in Portuguese, including irony and sarcasm.
When the system identifies content considered fake news or hate speech, it stores the material in a repository, where it is later reviewed by a lawyer employed by the NGO before potentially being forwarded to the courts.
“Brazilian society must fear being caught by the state committing the terrible crime of saying that two plus two equals four” – Isabella Cêpa on the AI tool’s effect on free speech
However, critics warn it could criminalise citizens for gender-critical or fact-based statements and see it as a threat to free speech.
Isabella Cêpa, an advocate for sexual and domestic violence who has previously demonstrated anti-trans behaviours online, said, according to The European Conservative: “Using artificial intelligence to hunt political dissidents is something we once thought belonged far from Brazil’s reality.”
She added: “Today, Brazilian society must fear being caught by the state committing the terrible crime of saying that two plus two equals four.”
As reported by Attitude in 2019, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court ruled that discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is a form of “racism” under the country’s anti-racial discrimination laws. Additionally, transphobia is a legal offence under Brazil’s Penal Code.