FREEDOM ON THE NET 2024 The Struggle for Trust Online on free expression and allow civil society to hold the TSE accountable when it oversteps. In addition, Brazil’s Supreme Court has pursued clearly disproportionate restrictions on free expression in a parallel effort to address false, misleading, and incendiary content that has contributed to offline violence in the country. Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led the TSE from August 2022 to June 2024, ordered the blocking of X in August 2024, after the coverage period, as part of a monthslong dispute over the platform’s refusal to comply with court orders restricting far-right accounts that were accused of spreading false and misleading information. The blocking order, which severed millions of Brazilians from the platform and was upheld by a panel of Supreme Court justices in early September, also concerningly threatened fines for people using anticensorship tools like VPNs to access X. The dispute between Moraes and X escalated into displays of brinksmanship in which X owner Elon Musk launched invectives and insults at the justice and flouted rules requiring foreign companies to have a local presence, while Moraes extended his enforcement efforts to Starlink and its parent company SpaceX, of which Musk is the chief executive and largest shareholder. A more rights-respecting way to address problematic content Some countries have developed more promising efforts to deal with false, misleading, or incendiary content, emphasizing transparency, the involvement of local civil society, democratic oversight, and adherence to international human rights standards. South Africa’s approach surrounding its May 2024 elections is one such positive example. The Real411 portal, led by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) and the civil society group Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), allowed the public to report cases of false information, harassment, hate speech, and incitement to violence, which were then assessed by media, legal, and technology experts to determine whether they met a set of narrow definitions for each category of content. If they did, the IEC could refer the content to the Electoral Court to determine whether it violated election laws, to platforms to determine whether it violated their terms of service, or to the media to raise awareness about or debunk false narratives. The IEC and MMA also created Padre, an online repository designed to catalog and increase transparency regarding political parties’ spending on and placement of political advertisements. Independent experts’ involvement in the IEC’s initiatives helped ensure that decisions about online content were proportionate, specific, and protective of free expression. A view of the election results announcement hosted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, which worked with civil society groups to address problematic online content during the May 2024 elections. (Photo credit: Michele Spatari/AFP/Getty Images) 16 @freedomonthenet #FreedomOnTheNet