Fake News: Violation of the Right to Privacy and the Democratic State of Law

Abstract

Between the years 2017 and 2019 the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the UK House of Commons published Final Report of an investigation about the conduct of some companies that exploit social networks. This study is one of several legislative and doctrinal studies spreading across countries that aim to understand the phenomenon of fake news in social networks, as a mechanism of violation of the Right to Privacy, Right to Truth and therefore a weakening of the Democratic Rule of Law. According to the report in question, it was demonstrated the incidence of the use of data from users and non-users of that social network for political and commercial purposes without the knowledge of the people who had their data collected and passed on to third parties. However, it is clear from the legislative and doctrinal documents used that this qualified form of violation of Privacy causes a weakening of the democratic process, in view of the fact that it violates the Fundamental Right to Truth - in its two meanings: personal and collective - since it attacks the collective decision-making process of society. The methodology, respecting the rhetorical bias of the proposed investigation, in document research and presenting some reflections of the theory social reality