Superior Electoral Court, Twitter Brazil, Special Electoral Appeal No. 74-64.2012.6.20.0003

Decision held that Twitter Posts (Tweets) are not to be interpreted as anticipated electoral propaganda, even if the tweets contain electoral content or political opinion (according to Federal Law no. 9.504, electoral propaganda over the Internet is forbidden before July 5th of the year in which the election takes place). In this case, the Court noted “(…) Twitter consists of a conversation between people, and, usually, this communication is restricted to their bonds of friendship and persons authorized by the user." Therefore, "preventing the disclosure of a thought or opinion, even those with electoral content during the constraint-period provided by the electoral law, in a delimited social network like Twitter, is to prevent someone to speak with others. This prohibition implies violation of freedom of thought and speech."