The Federal Court in Minas Gerais ordered the temporary suspension of access, throughout Brazil, to the foreign website Sanctioned Suicide, which brings together forums and content on suicide and self-mutilation. The preliminary decision was granted this Wednesday (11), by the 13th Federal Civil Court and JEF Deputy of Belo Horizonte, in a public civil action filed by the Brazilian Bar Association in Minas Gerais (OAB-MG) against the North American company Personal Autonomy LLC, responsible for the platform.
"We are not faced with the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression of thought or preventive psychosocial support, but with a computational architecture deliberately devoid of effective moderation and age barriers, favoring instigation, the provision of chemical recipes and the facilitation of suicide by vulnerable and hypervulnerable people, including adolescents and children", says the decision.
The decision determines that the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) notifies connection and telecommunications service providers to technically block the domain and IP addresses associated with the website. The agency has 24 hours, from receipt of the order, to notify the companies. Compliance with the measure must be monitored and certified to the Court within 48 hours.
Judge Carla Dumont Oliveira de Carvalho also established a daily fine of R$50,000 for the company if there is an irregular reactivation of the service or a deliberate attempt to technologically circumvent the blockade in the country.
In a statement, the president of OAB-MG, Gustavo Chalfun, stated that freedom of expression cannot justify practices that put lives at risk.
"Freedom of expression cannot serve as a shield for practices that put lives at risk. Protecting the lives, dignity and integrity of people in vulnerable situations is a commitment that requires action," he declared.
How will the blocking be done?
As Personal Autonomy LLC is headquartered in the United States and does not have a branch or legal representative in Brazil, the judge considered that an order directed only at the company might not be sufficient to stop access to the website.
Therefore, it determined that Anatel inform internet and telecommunications providers to block the sanctioned-suicide.net domain through two mechanisms: domain name resolution (DNS) and IP addresses linked to the platform.
The suspension is temporary and may be reviewed if the company proves to the Court that it has adapted its services to Brazilian security, traceability and moderation requirements. At 7:20 am this Friday (13), g1 verified that the website remains active.
g1 contacted Anatel and is awaiting a response. He also contacted the law firm appointed as the legal representative of Personal Autonomy LLC in the United States to request a position, but did not receive a response until the last update of this report.
The popularity of the site
One of the data presented in the process and considered by the Court was the volume of Brazilian access to the website. According to the documents, Brazil is the platform's second largest source of traffic, with more than 75 thousand monthly visits, equivalent to approximately 15% of global visits. Publications and interactions in Portuguese were also identified.
The action also cites the case of a young Brazilian who had used the forum in the days before his death and maintained contacts that, according to the OAB-MG, encouraged and assisted the practice.
Systemic failure and understanding of the STF
When analyzing the request, the judge considered that the platform presents a systemic failure and violates security and life protection duties. For the judge, these are not isolated illicit publications made by users, but an organized structure to encourage self-extermination.
"In the current hypothesis, the documentary evidence contained in the file proves that the defendant platform is not a mere generic communication space that suffers occasional deviations due to isolated abusive conduct [...]. On the contrary, the site is deliberately structured into categories aimed at the operational detail of lethal mechanisms, as evidenced by the existence of specific method sections (Method), explicit discussions on fatal substances and permanent compilation topics (Suicide Resource Compilation), in which forms and techniques of self-extermination", says the decision.
The decision is also based on the understanding of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which established duties of care for internet application providers when faced with the circulation of content related to serious crimes.
Among the conducts foreseen in this understanding are induction, instigation and assistance to suicide or self-mutilation, crimes provided for in article 122 of the Penal Code. According to the decision, in these situations, providers must act immediately when there is a massive circulation of serious illicit content and systemic failure.
The Federal Court also recognized the application of Brazilian legislation to foreign companies, as the platform offers its services to the public in the country and records a significant volume of national accesses.
