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Analysis by cyber lawyer and EDF General Counsel Sarkis Darbinyan shows that content moderation on digital platforms is becoming a global issue. Numerous complaints from authorities in different countries indicate that the current level of content regulation no longer meets governments' demands.
It is important to note that there is currently no comprehensive international agreement on content moderation, which makes it difficult to find uniform solutions. Each country has its own ideas about what is considered legal content, and this leads to the growth of "sovereignization" of the Internet.
One of the most prominent and recent cases is Brazil. In this country, the Supreme Court decided to block the social network X (formerly Twitter). This happened after the platform closed its office in the country and refused to appoint an official representative, as well as to combat disinformation.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has been called Brazil’s top cyber judge, ordered Apple and Google to remove the X app from their stores. But he also went further, imposing fines of R$50,000 for attempts to bypass the block via VPN.
The US is also heavily involved in such cases. TikTok, which is under threat of being blocked in the US, has become a defendant in a case involving the death of a 10-year-old girl caused by a dangerous challenge. The court ruled that algorithmic recommendation feeds may not be protected by law, raising serious concerns among other platforms that use similar mechanisms.
Tanzania has also been in the spotlight. The country’s authorities blocked access to X without a court order, which coincided with an online campaign by activists against the president. The blocking has sparked public outrage and is part of a larger trend towards policing internet content in the developing world.
To the list voiced by Sarkis Darbinyan, we would add France, which remains one of the key countries actively trying to regulate social networks - an example of this is the situation with the arrest of Pavel Durov.
Here, we should also not forget that claims were made against Telegram by South Korea, where an investigation was conducted in connection with the distribution of deepfakes. The platform eventually admitted its mistake, apologized and deleted 25 posts of an explicit nature. Law enforcement agencies in the country are planning to create a hotline to quickly respond to such situations.
And recently it became known that Durov agreed to cooperate more closely with the French authorities, also announcing changes in the work of the messenger, which will more strictly moderate content, and the phone numbers and IP addresses of violators will be transferred to government agencies of one country or another.
Another alarming signal is that Apple, according to the investigation of the GreatFire project, is not transparently cooperating with the Russian authorities, removing VPN services from the App Store. The number of blocked services, according to GreatFire, exceeds official data, and some blocking was carried out without public notice.
More than 20% of VPN services were blocked secretly, causing inconvenience to their users.
“Transnational companies are increasingly accused of considering themselves above the laws of their countries,” says Darbinyan.
All this demonstrates a dangerous trend when states tighten control over Internet content, which leads to an ever greater restriction of freedom of speech and the right to access information.
This process is only exacerbated by the lack of international standards. Sarkis Darbinyan summarizes:
“The trend of ‘sovereignization and compliance’ continues, and transnational companies are forced to adapt to new requirements.”
It is important to note that there is currently no comprehensive international agreement on content moderation, which makes it difficult to find uniform solutions. Each country has its own ideas about what is considered legal content, and this leads to the growth of "sovereignization" of the Internet.
One of the most prominent and recent cases is Brazil. In this country, the Supreme Court decided to block the social network X (formerly Twitter). This happened after the platform closed its office in the country and refused to appoint an official representative, as well as to combat disinformation.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has been called Brazil’s top cyber judge, ordered Apple and Google to remove the X app from their stores. But he also went further, imposing fines of R$50,000 for attempts to bypass the block via VPN.
The US is also heavily involved in such cases. TikTok, which is under threat of being blocked in the US, has become a defendant in a case involving the death of a 10-year-old girl caused by a dangerous challenge. The court ruled that algorithmic recommendation feeds may not be protected by law, raising serious concerns among other platforms that use similar mechanisms.
Tanzania has also been in the spotlight. The country’s authorities blocked access to X without a court order, which coincided with an online campaign by activists against the president. The blocking has sparked public outrage and is part of a larger trend towards policing internet content in the developing world.
To the list voiced by Sarkis Darbinyan, we would add France, which remains one of the key countries actively trying to regulate social networks - an example of this is the situation with the arrest of Pavel Durov.
Here, we should also not forget that claims were made against Telegram by South Korea, where an investigation was conducted in connection with the distribution of deepfakes. The platform eventually admitted its mistake, apologized and deleted 25 posts of an explicit nature. Law enforcement agencies in the country are planning to create a hotline to quickly respond to such situations.
And recently it became known that Durov agreed to cooperate more closely with the French authorities, also announcing changes in the work of the messenger, which will more strictly moderate content, and the phone numbers and IP addresses of violators will be transferred to government agencies of one country or another.
Another alarming signal is that Apple, according to the investigation of the GreatFire project, is not transparently cooperating with the Russian authorities, removing VPN services from the App Store. The number of blocked services, according to GreatFire, exceeds official data, and some blocking was carried out without public notice.
More than 20% of VPN services were blocked secretly, causing inconvenience to their users.
“Transnational companies are increasingly accused of considering themselves above the laws of their countries,” says Darbinyan.
All this demonstrates a dangerous trend when states tighten control over Internet content, which leads to an ever greater restriction of freedom of speech and the right to access information.
This process is only exacerbated by the lack of international standards. Sarkis Darbinyan summarizes:
“The trend of ‘sovereignization and compliance’ continues, and transnational companies are forced to adapt to new requirements.”
(the text translation was done automatically)
