Online censorship is latent in Chile

AutorPaz Peña
Páginas75-76

Page 75

See note 32

The latest draft amendments to the Press Law in Chile (known as Digital Media Act) caused quite a bit of controversy over how it would affect the expression of Internet users. The problem is that in a country that has had its fair share of censorship issues on the net, the defense of our freedom of expression becomes an urgent necessity.

The latest controversy over freedom of expression online in Chile erupted with the discussion of the so-called "Digital Media Law" – two newsletters (9460-19 and 9461-19) that seek to reform the Press Law (19.733). On one hand, we had the creators defending it by appealing to the so called "spirit" of the law, which only intended to regulate traditional online media. On the other, there were organizations, which after the denunciation by Derechos Digitales, noted the potential dangers of a bill that was poorly written, with negative effects towards online freedom of expression.

The big problem with these projects is the vagueness of their concepts, which come along and worsen the already unclear deinition of communication mediums in the current Press Law. The latter says:

"Communication mediums are those which are apt for transmitting, disseminating, broadcasting or propagating texts, sounds or images intended for the public, in a stable and regular manner, regardless of the medium or the instrument".

The idea of the amendment is to deine what an electronic communication medium actually is. According to its deinition, it means that any publication, whether it is printed or digital, which is published at least four days each week and meets the other requirements of law, will be considered a newspaper.

But if the deinition of newspaper, as we see in the press law, is applicable to virtually all websites on the Internet, including social networks, the new distinction of "publishing at least four days a week" does not really help to differentiate an electronic newspaper from other sites that store and distribute content online.

Page 76

Ignoring the vagueness of this modiication is dangerous, because it leaves the door open for it to be used as an excuse for applying all the obligations of an electronic communications medium, which as NIC Chile once pointed out, are rather absurd, to any type of website. This implies ines and, indeed, the obligation of identifying the legal representative of the web, clearly putting the right of anonymity at risk.

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