Publishing policies of social networks: a balance between principles or censorship practices?

Abstract

This article intends to analyze the legality of the removal of comments or posts that contradict the internal policies of social networks. The paper tries to determine to what extent such networks of microblogs are free to limit the content of individual opinions and to what extent such internal control could be equated to censorship, which was banned by the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. In this sense, the paper advocates that a company is free to determine its own policies for publishing content, as long as it is non-discriminatory and based on ethical and reasonable criteria according to freedom of speech and other equally fundamental principles such as the preservation of public health.