Removing Offensive Online Content: Court and Out-of-Court Options

This page is a translation of the original Portuguese text, provided for convenience. It deals with Brazilian law. If there is any discrepancy, the Portuguese version prevails. Read the original in Portuguese

Offensive content can be removed from the internet in two ways: an out-of-court notice to the platforms or a lawsuit. The rules come from the Marco Civil da Internet (Brazil’s Internet Civil Rights Framework), which Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court revisited in 2025.

What Counts as Offensive Content Online

Material is considered offensive when it is posted on social media, websites, or messaging apps and violates personality rights, such as honor, image, privacy, and name. This includes posts containing slander, defamation, and insult, as well as doctored images, hate speech, and false information capable of harming the reputation of a person or a company.

The law treats one type of content with particular severity: the sharing of intimate images without consent, a practice known as revenge porn. In these cases, the harm tends to be immediate and hard to repair, which justifies faster removal procedures.

Classifying the content correctly is the starting point, because it determines which removal route is most appropriate and how urgently you need to act to stop the material from spreading.

The Out-of-Court Route: Notifying the Platforms Directly

The out-of-court route does not require you to file a lawsuit at the outset. The affected person uses the platforms’ own reporting channels. Platforms maintain forms and internal policies for reviewing posts that violate their terms of use.

The Marco Civil da Internet (Law No. 12.965/2014) reinforces this option in Article 21. Under that provision, an internet application provider becomes liable when it fails to remove content showing nudity or private sexual acts after being notified by the victim or the victim’s representative. In this specific situation, the notice alone is enough to create the duty to remove the content.

An out-of-court notice is usually the first step, and it can speed up the removal of the material without immediate court costs.

When the platform grants the request, the content comes down quickly. If it ignores the request or refuses to remove clearly unlawful material, the way is open to hold it liable and to take the appropriate court action, now with documentary proof of its failure to act.

Material is considered offensive when it is posted on social media, websites, or messaging apps and violates personality rights, such as honor, image, privacy, and name.

The Court Route: When Removal Requires a Judge’s Order

For most offensive posts that do not involve nudity, the general rule in Article 19 of the Marco Civil required a specific court order before the platform could be compelled to remove the content and held liable for damages. The idea was to balance freedom of expression against protection from abuse.

In practice, the injured person files a lawsuit and can request a preliminary injunction. This request allows the judge to order the immediate removal of the material even before the final judgment, whenever there is a likelihood that the right exists and a risk of harm. If you want to learn about other areas in which the firm works, see the page on practice areas in digital law.

Besides removal, the court route allows you to seek compensation for moral damages, the identification of those responsible for an anonymous post, and the preservation of records that prove who committed the unlawful act.

What Changed with the 2025 STF (Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court) Decision

In 2025, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court revisited the constitutionality of Article 19 of the Marco Civil da Internet. The court’s ruling expanded the platforms’ duty of care. They are now liable more broadly when they fail to act against manifestly unlawful content, even without a prior court order in certain serious situations.

As a result, the out-of-court notice now carries weight in a wider range of situations and is no longer limited to the intimate images already covered by Article 21. Providers are likely to adopt faster review mechanisms to avoid liability.

Even with this progress, the court route remains essential when a platform refuses to act, when there is a dispute over whether the content is unlawful, or when you need compensation and the identification of those responsible. Combining both routes remains the most effective strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

When can content be removed without going to court?

Removal without a lawsuit is possible when the platform itself accepts the report made through its internal channels. When intimate images are shared without consent, the law provides that the victim’s notice alone obliges the provider to remove the material, under Article 21 of the Marco Civil da Internet.

How does an urgent request work in a lawsuit?

An urgent request allows the judge to order the immediate removal of the post before the final decision in the case. To grant it, the judge assesses the likelihood that the claimed right exists and the risk of serious harm or harm that would be hard to repair. This is common when content spreads rapidly online.

What is the deadline to seek compensation for offensive content?

Under the Brazilian Civil Code, the right to seek compensation for moral damages caused by an offensive post expires after three years, counted from the date you learned of the fact. However, you can ask for the content to be removed at any time, as long as the material remains available and continues to cause harm.

✅ Anti-hallucination audit: Law No. 12.965/2014 (Arts. 19 and 21) verified; the 2025 review of Art. 19 by Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court is referred to in general terms, without inventing a case number, literal thesis, or rapporteur; the three-year limitations period (Civil Code, Article 206, § 3º, V) applied to moral damages.

As informações deste artigo são de caráter informativo e não substituem consulta jurídica individualizada. Cada caso possui particularidades que exigem análise específica.