Google decided to veto the promotion of electoral propaganda from May 1, 2024. The decision was made due to the impossibility of the company complying with all the requirements of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which ordered the Big Techs creating a panel to monitor all ads.
Even if the panel already exists, expanding the tool as required by the TSE would be very expensive for companies, in addition to giving rise to punishments in the event of non-fulfillment of the Court’s orders.
With the decision, no candidate content can be promoted on Google Ads, a platform that allows the creation of ads for the search engine and companies in the group, such as YouTube.
“Elections are important to Google, and over the past few years we have worked tirelessly to launch new products and services to support candidates and voters. For this year’s Brazilian elections, we will update our Google Ads political content policy to no longer allow political ads to run in the country. This update will take place in May with a view to the entry into force of electoral resolutions for 2024. We are globally committed to supporting the integrity of elections and will continue to engage with authorities regarding this matter”, says an excerpt from the Google statement released this Tuesday (24) at Power360.
A People’s Gazette contacted the Google office in Brazil and is awaiting a response.
TSE resolution 23,732/24 determines that Big Techs must:
I – maintain a repository of these advertisements to monitor, in real time, the content, values, those responsible for payment and the characteristics of the population groups that make up the audience (profile) of the contracted advertising and;
II – provide an accessible and easy-to-use query tool that allows you to perform an advanced search on the repository’s data.
This requirement already existed, the difference is that now the TSE has expanded the scope of what must be monitored. Due to this expansion, there is a fear on the part of companies that failure to fully comply with the determination could lead to accusations of negligence.
“For the purposes of this article, it characterizes political-electoral content, regardless of the classification made by the platform, that which deals with elections, political parties, federations and coalitions, elected positions, people holding elected positions, candidates, government proposals, projects of law, exercise of the right to vote and other political rights or matters related to the electoral process”, says another excerpt from the TSE resolution.
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Infographics Gazeta do Povo[Clique para ampliar]
