Abstract
This article aims to investigate how new intermediaries of expression - such as online media platforms and social networks - regulate speech, through content moderation and promotion of opinions expressed by users, and how this performance influences the debate on freedom of expression. The jurisprudential analysis methodology is used to define the problem, as well as literature review and data collection, to identify new intermediaries of expression, analyzing their main characteristics, modes of action, online content curation and possibilities of censorship by private actors. The research presents the following results: a) large access platforms and social networks, in practice, control freedom of expression, through prior censorship, collection of personal data and control of information flow; b) there has not yet been an internationally coordinated and effective institutional response, mainly due to the difficulty of transposing local rules to companies with global operations; c) the State takes on the role of central actor to protect, in the digital world, the free circulation of thought, intimacy/privacy, equality, the truth of the content inserted and, consequently, the health of democracy in the 21st century.
Keywords:
freedom of expression; digital age; new intermediaries; censorship; private actors