On 11th May 2016, one day before being suspended by the Senate, President Dilma issued Decree No. 8,771/2016, regulating pending aspects of the internet law known as the Internet Civil Landmark.
The discussion around the Internet Civil Landmark has grown in importance lately since such law is at the centre of two controversial issues affecting not only the usual lawmakers but the population in general: 1- recent court decisions have ordered the suspension of WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Facebook, in Brazil for failure to comply with orders demanding information relating to individuals involved in organized crime and drug trafficking investigations; and 2- plans by telecommunication operators to limit data in broadband internet, which would inter-alia, undermine Netflix´s use by consumers, and benefit the operators themselves, who also control cable TV services, and which would also allegedly violate the principle of neutrality, such plans having been temporarily vetoed by the National Telecommunications Agency (“Anatel”).
Despite the decree not providing further clarification on the controversial issue regarding the criteria for the application by the courts of the penalties provided by the Internet Civil Landmark, it does strengthen the principle of neutrality by clarifying in Article 10 that “the commercial offers and billing procedures for gaining access to the internet must preserve a single internet, with an open nature, plural and diverse, construed as a means for the promotion of the human, economic, social and cultural development, contributing to the construction of an inclusive and non-discriminatory society”. As we are still yet to see how the courts will apply this not so clarifying decree, it is certain that the battles between WhatsApp and the courts and Netflix and the telecommunication operators will have many other rounds.