Snowden revelations impact Brazil

The Snowden revelations have triggered a significant international political reaction from the Brazilian government. But that happened only after Glenn Greenwald, enabled with Snowden's leaks and living in Rio de Janeiro, started to release information about NSA surveillance over the Brazilian National Oil Company–Petrobrás [1] and thecommunications of the Brazilian President Dilma Roussef [2].

This breaking news was broadcast in the most popular TV program of the week in the biggest media outlet in the country over a series of Sunday night shows. Such media outreach made Brazilian authorities frame the NSA scandal as an issue of national sovereignty, leading President Dilma to request clarification from the U.S. government. Without any substantive answer even after a call with President Barak Obama himself, she has canceled a visit previously scheduled to the country [3].

In order to collect more information, the Senate has installed a Parliamentary Commission for Inquiry, entitled “CPI da Espionagem”, where ICT companies, Glenn Greenwald and others where invited to testify [4]. The Brazilian Federal Police had also opened an investigation, calling the presidents of Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple to testify [5] and even requested to interrogate Edward Snowden.

After postponing her visit to the US, the first international answer by President Dilma was a strong statement at the UN General Assembly [6] in which she stressed that "in the absence of the right to privacy, there can be no true freedom of expression and opinion, and therefore no effective democracy.” She also highlighted that “the right to safety of citizens of one country can never be guaranteed by violating fundamental human rights of citizens of another country” and that “in the absence of the respect for sovereignty, there is no basis for the relationship among nations."

Indeed, the notion of sovereignty started to be restated in national debates for legislation. As a declared response to NSA surveillance, the government has proposed changes in the text of Marco Civil, the Draft Bill for a Civil Right A Crisis of accountability

Framework for the Internet in Brazil. The most polemic of these mentioned the possibility to oblige some ICT companies to nationalize their data centers. Ultimately, that proposal was dropped from the text, but the final text still stipulates that “any operation regarding collection, storage, treatment and storage of data or personal communications by ISPs that occurs in Brazilian territory must respect Brazilian legislation and the rights to privacy, protection of personal data and confidentiality of private communications and records.” The draft bill also had many changes regarding extending the provisions on privacy rights. [7]

After all theses changes were proposed, the President also declared constitutional urgency for Marco Civil. This meant that National Congress would have a fixed term to analyze it, otherwise, the agenda would be blocked and no other draft proposal could be considered. The text received approved during the course of another outcome of the Snowden Revelations, the diplomatic meeting en titled NetMundial, hosted in Sao Paulo in April, 23rd and 24th. Also known as a global multistakeholder meeting on the future of Internet governance[8], NetMundial was conceived in the aftermath of the Snowden revelation's to gather different stakeholders from the international community to discuss the elaboration of universal principles for Internet governance and a proposal for a roadmap for future development of this ecosystem. Nevertheless, even though mass surveillance practices where the main issue that sparkled the idea of such debate, the final text, entitled the NetMundial Multistakeholder Statement [9], has just one paragraph about the topic:

“Mass and arbitrary surveillance undermines trust in the Internet and trust in the Internet governance ecosystem. Collection and processing of personal data by state and non-state actors should be conducted in accordance with international human rights law. More dialogue is needed on this topic at the international level using forums like the Human Rights Council and IGF aiming to develop a common understanding on all the related aspects.”

Even though negotiated outside the UN system, in a context in which raw consensus was acceptable, the text doesn't go beyond the statement in the Resolution entitled “Right to Privacy in the Digital Age”, which was proposed by Brazil and Germany and approved by consensus in the UNGA [10].

It was also in April 2014 that the final report from “CPI da Espionagem” was released [11]. Over more then 300 pages this document attests the country's fragility in face of international mass surveillance of electronic communications and suggests measures for improving national cybersecurity, including a draft bill regarding access to Brazilian users’ data by foreign authorities. [12] The approved text will be forwarded to several public agencies. Even though President Dilma has reaffirmed in her speech at UNGA that there is a need to “create the conditions to prevent cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war, through espionage, sabotage and A Crisis of accountability attacks against systems and infrastructure”, it seams that the path is heading in the other direction.

Brazil was not been identified in the NSA scandal as an agent of surveillance, only as a country under surveillance. As such, the focus of reactions to Snowden’s revelations in the country were mostly on the USA. No real attention has been given to the involvement of the other Five Eyes countries. Nonetheless, since the protests of June, 2013 - and now in preparations for the World Cup - national surveillance by the Brazilian State has also been a increasing concern. [13]

Snowden in Brazil? In August, 2013, David Miranda, the Brazilian partner of Glenn Greenwald who lives in Rio, was detained for nine hours by Scotland Yard officers at Heathrow A irport in London, under the justification of counter-terrorism. [14] The detention was highly criticized by Brazilian media and gave Miranda some visibility in media outlets. In the aftermath of his detention, Miranda started an online campaign [15] for granting political asylum to Snowden in Brazil, currently with more then one million signatures.

In December, 2013, the newspaper "Folha de S. Paulo" published an "Open Letter to the People of Brazil" [16], in which Snowden himself said the WhiteHouse would continue interfering in his "ability to speak" until he is granted permanent asylum in some country, suggesting that in Brazil he could assist the government investigations regarding espionage by Washington. During the “CPI da Espionagem” several congressman have expressed sympathy for grating Snowden asylum in the country.

Recently, in May, 2014, Snowden gave an interview to Fantástico, the most viewed program on Sunday open TV, reaffirming once again that if Brazil grants him asylum, he would come. [17] Nevertheless, though confirming the receipt of a formal request for asylum from Snowden at the Brazilian Embassy in Moscow, the Brazilian government has never responded to it, and representatives from the Ministry of Foreing Affairs have reinforced that thereis no intention to deal with such a request. [18]