In a decision issued by the 7th Special Civil Court of Brasília1, the understanding provide for in Law 12,965/14 (Marco Civil da Internet) was applied, which states that Internet application providers can only be held responsible for civil damages arising from third party content in the event of non-compliance with a specific court order aiming the removal.
The lawsuit that led to this decision was filed by an individual who received offenses and false accusations on the social network Instagram. According to the plaintiff’s allegations, the platform would not have removed or blocked the account used for publishing the offensive content after her report, which would have motivated the filing of the lawsuit against the social network, as well as seeking compensation for moral damages.
The judge of the case understood that “if there is no order by the Court to remove the content, there is no need to talk about the provider’s liability for the content published on its network”. The magistrate denied the indemnity request to the plaintiff, but granted her demand for the exclusion of the account, as well as the application of a daily fine of R$ 200, in case the platform does not comply with the order within 15 days.
1Lawsuit No 0732990-85.2020.8.07.0016