What is the Marco Civil da Internet? This law establishes principles, guarantees and rights for Internet users: citizens, companies and government. Among other topics, this legislation establishes principles for freedom of speech, privacy protection, log file and network neutrality.

1. The Brazilian Civil Rights
Framework for the Internet
Marco Civil da Internet
Samuel Barros
PhD Candidate in Political Communication at Federal University of Bahia (UFBA)
Member of the Center for Advanced Studies in Digital Democracy (CEADD)
Visiting Researcher at MIT Center for Civic Media
MIT Center for Civic Media | December 11, 2014
The drafting process and some key
issues

2. What is the Marco Civil da Internet?
This law establishes principles, guarantees and
rights for Internet users: citizens, companies and
government. Among other topics, this
legislation establishes principles for freedom of
speech, privacy protection, log file and network
neutrality.
The Marco Civil da Internet translated to the English is available here:
https://www.publicknowledge.org/documents/marco-civil-english-version

3. As Tim Berners-Lee said, the Marco Civil:
[…] balances the rights and responsibilities of the
individuals, governments and corporations who use the
Internet. Of course, there is still discussion around some
areas, but ultimately the draft Bill reflects the Internet as it
should be: an open, neutral and decentralized network, in
which users are the engine for collaboration and
innovation. Commendably, the Bill has among its
foundations the guarantee of human rights such as
privacy, of citizenship and the preservation of the
diversity and the social purpose of the web.
Available at: http://webfoundation.org/2014/03/marco-civil-
statement-of-support-from-sir-tim-berners-lee/

4. The drafting
process of the
Marco Civil da
Internet
The project started from two online consultations carried out by the Brazilian Justice
Ministry. The consultations held in 2009 and 2010 resulted in a bill. 1827 comments were
received from citizens, but also companies, public institutions and civil society organizations.
Available at: http://culturadigital.br/marcocivil/

5. In August 2011, President Dilma
Rousseff sent the bill to the
Chamber of Deputies. The lower
house opened a consultation at the
platform “e-Democracia”. On this
website, it was possible to participate
in forums or make specific
suggestions for each bill’s article.
Available at: http://edemocracia.camara.gov.br/web/marco-civil-
da-internet

6. The bill was approved by the Senate in
April 2014. The presidential approval was
announced a day later, when happened the
NETMundial in Sao Paulo, an event to
discuss Internet governance around the
world.
Available at: http://netmundial.br/

7. Source: REGATTIERI, L. L.; MALINI, F.; HERKENHOFF, G. MarcoCivil:
Visualizing the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet in Brazil. 2014.
Analysis of the hashtag
"#MarcoCivil" on Twitter, between
July and December 2013:
46,55% of the network was in favor
of the vote of the law (blue
network);
17,39% was against (red network);
20,56% of tweets was posted by
media and specialists (green
network);
4,1% was posted by foreign
organizations (yellow network).

8. On YouTube, comedians and Internet celebrities
commented and expressed their views about the
Marco Civil. Some comments of popular people
in the SNS's contributed to the spread of this
topic to a wider audience.

9. During the Marco Civil legislation
process, the journalism was
especially important for two reasons:
1. To explain the purpose and
effects of the law. In the public
sphere, the journalism provided
content for a qualified
discussion;
2. To increase the visibility.

10. In April 2014, the Avaaz.org
opened a petition which got
300.000 signatures in 48 hours.
This initiative was supported by
the musician and former
Minister of Culture Gilberto
Gil.
Available at: http://www.avaaz.org/po/o_fim_da_internet_livre_senado/

11. 1. What disciplines have studied this
topic (Marco Civil da Internet)?
2. In each discipline, what are the main
issues? What questions need special
attention?
Questions

12. Internet Governance
Results
Net Neutrality.
The main contribution of the Civil Marco da Internet
was the guarantee of net neutrality. The law recognizes
Internet connection quality as a right.
Nevertheless, the Presidency can break the neutrality in
two situations: 1) technical requirements essential to the
adequate provision of services and applications; and 2)
prioritization of emergency services. However, this
procedure should be done with transparency and equality
among users. The law does not allow the ISPs to make
contracts with content producers to offer privileged traffic.

13. Drafting process of legislation on Internet
via the Internet.
The drafting process of the Civil Marco da
Internet was an innovative experience in the
Brazilian context and can bring inspiration for
legislation on this subject through the same
procedure around the world.
However, it is necessary to understand how the
contributions of citizens are received by the
political system, which actors participate and
which do not participate, the plurality of
political positions represented, the publicity and
transparency.

14. Fundamental rights.
The Marco Civil da Internet recognized two types of
rights/principles:
i) Rights that are already guaranteed by other
laws, were reaffirmed for the Internet: freedom
of speech, protection of privacy and personal
data, human rights and business freedom.
ii) New rights that needed specific legislation:
preservation of network neutrality, preservation
of stability and security of the network,
responsibility of users, access providers and
producers according their activities.
Rights

15. Responsibility for content posted by
third parties.
The Marco Civil understands that
websites and applications that provides an
online environment for participation have
no responsibility for what users post. Web
sites and applications will be held liable
only if they do not take out content after a
court order.
This is important to ensure freedom of
expression. Before, for example,
newspaper sites excluded controversial
content posted by readers because they
feared lawsuits.

16. Users Log file.
From the point the point of view of activists,
the main problem of the Civil Marco da Internet
is the requirement to file the records of users.
ISPs must file for 1 year the connection logs (IP,
date, time), but are forbidden to save URLs. The
sites and applications must file for six months
the IP and the URLs accessed by its users.
The law states that records must be kept
confidential and security and can only be
delivered to public authorities after a court order,
but many experts consider this an abuse of
surveillance and a lack of respect for the
presumption of innocence.
Privacy (data protection)

17. Investment.
The Marco Civil reduces legal uncertainties,
which encourages innovation and the
development of new online businesses. The
most important issue was the recognition that
sites and applications are not responsible for
the use and content posted by its users. Before
the existence of this law, Brazilian courts made
some decisions that have hurt companies
because of illegal content posted by its users.
Economy

18. The Marco Civil is an example for other
countries, especially on the issue of net
neutrality. The challenge is to build a law that
respects the characteristics of each country,
while guaranteeing civil rights and promotes the
online citizenship.
Conclusion
Thank you!
Samuel Barros
samuel.barros77@gmail.com
samuelb@mit.edu