Brazil speeds up big tech regulation

Brazil’s push to tighten regulation of digital platforms moved on several fronts this week at once. One track is already in force, Decree No. 12.976/2026, which sets specific obligations for digital service providers in cases of online violence against women. Another is legislative, with the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies advancing bills that could reshape compliance for big tech companies on content moderation, competition and user rights.

Decree on digital violence against women

According to the federal government, Decree No. 12.976, dated May 20, 2026, established protection guidelines for women on the internet and measures to confront violence against women in the digital environment. The rule took effect 60 days after publication, on May 21, and has been formally in force since July 20, 2026.

Agência Gov reported that the text requires platforms to take down illegal intimate content within up to two hours of notification. That requirement also covers material created or manipulated by artificial intelligence. It also provides for provider liability in cases of systemic failure when they cannot show adequate prevention and removal measures against the mass spread of illegal content.

The same decree expressly assigns Brazil’s data protection authority, the ANPD, responsibility for regulating, supervising and investigating the violations covered by the rule. That makes the agency the central authority overseeing compliance with these new platform obligations.

Opposition targets another big tech decree

At the same time, opposition lawmakers in the Brazilian Senate filed an urgency request to speed up a vote on Draft Legislative Decree 470/2026, which seeks to overturn Decree No. 12.975/2026 signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. According to Poder360, that decree changes digital security rules for major technology platforms.

That same reporting said Decree No. 12.975/2026 would broaden platform obligations by requiring a legal representative in Brazil, creating rules for preventing and removing illegal content, establishing complaint channels and holding companies responsible for systemic failures in security and moderation. In practice, the text sets out new compliance demands for big tech firms, although the exact regulatory detail was not included in the legislative-tracking summary available.

Bills moving through Congress

Other initiatives tied to platforms and digital markets are also moving through Congress. PL 4675/2025, which amends Law No. 12.529/2011, is moving under an urgency procedure in the Chamber of Deputies and could be voted on in plenary next week, according to its rapporteur, Aliel Machado. The bill would create the Special Superintendency for Systemic Relevance, Free Competition and Consumer Protection in Digital Markets, with specific authority over digital markets and platforms.

That proposal adds another compliance front for big tech companies in antitrust and consumer protection. It has also already drawn an international reaction, with Republican lawmakers in the United States calling on their government to pressure Brazil over the big tech regulation bill.

In the Senate, PL 2338/2023 also appears in matters related to Science, Technology and Informatics, and Individual and Collective Rights. The available material links it to civil liability and user rights in digital environments, with compliance implications for platforms and technology services, although the precise regulatory detail sits in a substitute text that was not reproduced in the legislative-tracking summary.

Other bills listed by the Senate include PL 4752/2025, PL 3066/2025 and PL 750/2026, part of a legislative map showing how Brazil has been layering rules on digital security, moderation, competition and user protection.