Mexico: Introduced Amendment of Federal Law of Telecommunications including expansion of oversight power

The amendment of the Mexican Federal Law of Telecommunications and Radiodiffusion is introduced in the Mexican Parliament. The amendment targets the category of “relevant social network providers”, including social media platforms with over a million users in Mexico. The amendment would expand the regulatory power of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) in the areas of licensing, content moderation and user speech rights. Firstly, relevant social network providers must obtain a license from the IFT, which can thus decide which platforms obtain the permission to operate. Secondly, relevant social network providers must remove any content the IFT designates as harmful to public interest. Thirdly, the IFT acts as final authority in decisions on user speech rights and can overrule providers' decisions. In addition, relevant social network providers would also require the approval of the IFT to change their Terms and Conditions.