Brazil pushes back on big tech firms’ campaign against ‘fake news law’

Brazil’s government and judiciary objected on Tuesday to big tech firms campaigning against an internet regulation bill aimed at cracking down on fake news, alleging undue interference in the debate in Congress.

Bill 2630, also known as the Fake News Law, puts the onus on the internet companies, search engines and social messaging services to find and report illegal material, instead of leaving it to the courts, charging hefty fines for failures to do so.

Tech firms have been campaigning against the bill, including Google LLC which had added a link on its search engine in Brazil connecting to blogs against the bill and asking users to lobby their representatives.