Will Brasil Paralelo censorship be resolved with blockchain?

One of the most discussed topics in these elections is censorship. The most serious case is that of prior censorship, with the suspension of the exhibition of the documentary “Who ordered to kill Jair Bolsonaro?”, by Brasil Paralelo (BP).

This year’s elections are being marked by the lack of freedom to express themselves. But can blockchain, as a decentralized tool, be resistant to censorship and store and distribute content freely? Let’s get there at the end of the article.

It is important to remember that the Federal Constitution prohibits “any and all censorship of a political, ideological and artistic nature”, but even so pages of online magazines, tweets and documentaries were taken off the air or prevented from being shown.

The most absurd episode undoubtedly took place on the 20th, when the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) determined, under penalty of a fine, that the content producer known as “Netflix on the right” did not publish its last documentary until the day after the elections. .

In addition, the BP channel, as well as other channels (Foco do Brasil, Folha Política and Dr. News) had the monetization of Youtube suspended by the Plenary. Therefore, they can no longer promote political-electoral content until the end of the elections.

The decision came after a request by the Electoral Judicial Investigation Action to investigate “misuse of the media, abuse of political power and abuse of economic power, with the use of social networks by a group of people to promote deliberate production and exponential dissemination of information”. knowingly false news aimed at attacking the candidacy of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, generating ‘information chaos’”.

Previous censorship came back from the time of the dictatorship?

The Electoral Justice Inspector General, Minister Benedito Gonçalves, argued that the suspension of the documentary exhibition was not a matter of censorship, but of preventing the theme (the assassination attempt on Bolsonaro) from receiving exponential reach, “under the guise of a documentary” ”.

However, the minister’s opinion was formed even before watching the content.

Minister Cármen Lúcia, in turn, made a point of emphasizing that the decision was “exceptional”, and that she was worried about the possible return of censorship in Brazil.

“The case is extremely serious. Censorship cannot be allowed to return under any argument in Brazil. This is a specific case. We are on the verge of having the second round of elections. The proposal is the inhibition until October 31, the day after the second round, so that there is no compromise of the smoothness, rigidity and security of the electoral process and the rights of voters. […]

If this, in any way, proves to lead to censorship, this decision must be immediately reformulated, in the sense of fully complying with the Constitution and the guarantee of freedom and the absence of any type of censorship.”, said the minister of the STF.

How can decentralization solve the problem of censorship?

While most of us are used to hearing about blockchain as a technology capable of supporting a digital currency, it can be much more than that. Depending on your point of view, Bitcoin is not money, it is software.

Blockchain is a distributed database, and data is just information, that is, it is analogous to speech or expression. The decentralization provided by this technology ensures that it is extremely difficult (and costly) to breach the integrity of the blockchain, making the exchange of information resistant to censorship.

Moving currencies (bitcoins, litecoins or any other ‘coin‘) is not the only use of a blockchain. Any content can be represented by zeros and ones in software. Even the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, immortalized a headline from a British newspaper in the first block of Bitcoin.

Therefore, blockchain could be part of the solution to the problem of censorship in Brazil or anywhere else in the world. Simple alternatives for this already exist: LBRY, Bitchute, PeerTube, and Memo, for example, can serve as replacements for more centralized social networks such as Youtube and Twitter, the torrent itself is a good alternative to disseminate politically incorrect content and there are ways to monetize it as we can see in BitTorrent currency.

Brasil Paralelo may even have its own platform, but the distribution of content would be hampered by the courts. Let’s imagine that they go to civil disobedience and publish the documentary “Who ordered to kill Jair Bolsonaro?”, certainly the hosting servers (if they are in Brazil) would be forced to remove the content from the air.

Even if the servers are in other countries, internet service providers would be required to block Brazilians from accessing the site. In addition, there would still be the problem of the fine, charged for non-compliance with the court decision.

Because of this, although technology exists, the problem is deeper: it is social. As long as our society does not value freedom of expression, these social networks will be on the fly, our Justice will continue to censor previously and the problem of lack of freedom can go from its symptomatic state to something chronic.

That is why we should give importance to projects like Brazuera by comedian Danilo Gentili, which unites a virtual reality where Justice is not able to completely reach, a social aspect of union between like-minded people and technology with the use of blockchain and other innovations.

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