MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo García Giorgana, Carlos Chavez Alanis and Xavier Careaga Franco, Galicia Abogados
mented legal landscape. Some attempts have been made in the past to enact an overall gen - eral law, but they have all failed at Congress. In summary, the laws and regulations that apply are: • privacy laws, which provide rules for users’ data collection, data processing, informed consent, data transfers and data rights, where the backbone of social media is user data; • the LFDA, which protects IP rights, includ - ing copyrighted content on social media – it governs copyright infringement, fair use and takedown requests, which are particularly relevant to UGC; • the Consumer Protection Law, which ensures consumers are protected from misleading advertising and unfair practices and applies to social media marketing and advertising – it also regulates content monetisation by influ - encers, supplemented by specific guidelines; • the Mexican Standard (NMX) on e-commerce, which is likely to become a NOM and applies to social media platforms facilitating e-com - merce activities, such as the sale of goods or services; • the Federal Telecommunications and Broad - casting Law ( Ley Federal de Telecomunica- ciones y Radiodifusión LFTR), which primarily focuses on telecommunications but indirectly affects social media by regulating ISPs and ensuring network neutrality; • federal and local penal codes – these address cybercrimes like hacking, identity theft and online harassment, which frequently occur on social media; • federal and local civil codes, which regulate defamation, libel and general liability issues arising from online speech and interactions on social media;
• USMCA Chapter 19 – although not yet a domestic law, this chapter provides interme - diary liability safe harbours for UGC, offering some protection for social media platforms; • in the near future, a cybersecurity law – depending on what the future law provides, social media would be differently impacted; • electoral law, which is relevant to organic and paid electoral content; and • goods and health regulations – these are rel - evant to organic and paid health-related con - tent, including the advertising and promotion of regulated goods and services such as food, drinks, pharmaceuticals and drugs, weapons and financial services, among other things. In addition to the foregoing regulations, there are some key challenges for social media and inter - mediary service providers in Mexico. • Free speech: Despite strong case law before the Supreme Court, complex content such as electoral content and hate content (including political gender violence), among other types of content, can lead to media pressure and defamation and libel actions that challenge the legality of the content and seek to estab - lish who is liable. • Intermediary liability and UGC: There is a very important case related to free speech waiting before the Supreme Court, where Google was sanctioned with a USD250 million fine due to UGC considered as defamatory against a user. In another very recent privacy case, the Supreme Court stated that content interme - diaries cannot be held liable for UGC. The Mexican Supreme Court recently affirmed the safe harbour for intermediaries (specifically for internet search providers) by limiting their liability for unlawful content. However, it is also important to mention that, in the same
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