Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's proposal to shield Brazil from alleged spying by the United States by making global Internet companies store data on Brazilian users inside the country is facing opposition in Congress, according to Reuters.
The legislation was proposed by Rousseff after U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency was conducting surveillance on the President's emails and phone calls, along with those of Brazilian citizens, according to Reuters.
The measure was added to the bill drafted in 2011, which is being called Brazil's "Internet Constitution," and was created to protect civil rights and privacy of Brazilian Internet users, Reuters reported. Rousseff wants Congress to vote on it as soon as possible, even as early as this week.
Companies like Google and Facebook are opposing the new requirement for in-country data storage because it will increase their costs and create barriers in what's supposed to be "a frontier-free World Wide Web," Reuters reported.
The bill is not being backed by the country's largest political party, Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), and according to officials, the bill's author, Alessandro Molon, is also not convinced. If passed the law will affect major Internet companies operations in Brazil, one of the largest telecommunications markets in the world, Reuters reported.
A spokesman of Molon said he opposes the bill and is trying to negotiate the removal or watering down of the added proposal. PMDB leader in the lower chamber of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, initially favored Rousseff's proposal, but told Reuters he would no longer follow the party on the issue.
Cunha is also against the net neutrality requirement of the bill, which ensures service providers and regulators cannot restrict users access to Internet content, Reuters reported. Brazilian telecom companies are also opposing the net neutrality because if passed, it will bar them from pricing based on Internet usage and download speeds.
Ronaldo Lemos, a Rio de Janeiro State University Professor who helped craft the original legislation, said the telecom companies have become increasingly opposed to the net neutrality requirement and want it removed completely, Reuters reported.
Lemos said if the requirement of net neutrality is removed the law could give the telecommunications companies power over the Internet in Brazil, Reuters reported.
"We could end up with a law that gives up on net neutrality and forces companies to have data centers in Brazil, this would be worse than espionage," Lemos told Reuters. "We would be giving a business sector, the telecommunications companies, the power to decide the future of the Internet in Brazil."
