Brazil Senate Passes Misogyny Criminalisation Bill — Amends Racism Law, Targets Online Speech
Brazil's Senate passed PL 896/2023 in March 2025, criminalising "misogyny" — defined as hatred or aversion to women — by amending the Lei do Racismo (Law 7.716/1989), the statute that criminalises racial discrimination. The bill, sponsored by Senator Ana Paula Lobato (PSB-MA) and originating in a citizen proposal by UnB professor Valeska Zanello, passed the CCJ (Committee on Constitution and Justice) in December 2024 before clearing the full Senate plenary. It now advances to the Chamber of Deputies, where a parallel bill (PL 872/2023) was introduced by Deputy Dandara Tonantzin (PT-MG). Penalties under the bill range from one to five years' imprisonment, with aggravated penalties for offences committed via social media or the internet. Opposition senators led by Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE) argued the definition of misogyny was "broad and imprecise" — likely to criminalise political satire, religious teaching, and heterodox commentary on gender relations without requiring proof of genuine incitement to violence. Amendments to include explicit free speech and religious expression carve-outs were rejected by the Senate plenary. The bill's originating academic, Zanello, has publicly stated the law is intended to be "educative" — using criminal liability to reshape what speech is socially acceptable — and has framed everyday "sexist jokes" as within the bill's intended reach. Brazil already operates one of the world's most restrictive judicial speech environments: the Supreme Court (STF) has suspended platform accounts without transparent process, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes has issued sweeping content removal orders. The misogyny bill would add a further layer of criminal liability for online speech — operative through the Lei do Racismo framework — without the procedural safeguards that normally accompany criminal prosecutions.