Eleições e plataformas digitais: a suposta oposição entre liberdade de expressão e transparência na moderação de conteúdos

The article focuses on transparency regarding account and content moderation by digital platform companies in the context of the 2024 Brazilian elections. Starting from an analysis based on political economy (Zuboff, 2019; Dantas et al, 2022), we approach the elections as a crucial moment of democracy that highlights the dispute between companies, electoral authorities, and civil society regarding transparency and content moderation on digital platforms. The objective is to understand how these actors' actions, whether isolated or coordinated, make transparency advance or retreat regarding account and content moderation (Annany, Crawford, 2018; Silva, Gertrudes, 2023) and how much they tension or instrumentalize notions of freedom of expression. As a method, information related to moderation is analyzed from public hearings on 2024 electoral resolutions, in addition to the resolutions and cooperation agreements between the Electoral Court and the platforms. The research also analyzes public documents from the digital platforms themselves dealing with their actions in elections in general and documents and regulations from the Secretariat for Digital Policies (SPDIGI) and the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) of the brazilian federal government. The study points to the need for a public and social governance structure that, at the very least, mitigates the asymmetry of power that digital platforms currently have due to the opacity of their moderation practices.