In addition to income and expenditure plans, the 2020-2024 Budget, sanctioned by the Uruguayan Senate on December 10, brought in something new: powers assigned to the country’s telecommunications authority to block audiovisual content from the Internet in order to prevent copyright violations.

The blocking or suspension of content may be done without a court order, but will be provisional and may not last more than one month. For the blocking of audiovisual content to happen, there must be a prior claim from people considering their copyright has been breached. The Communications Services Regulatory Unit will analyze such cases and may decide to remove the content (or the whole website) even before receiving the publisher´s justification for displaying the data. 

During its legislative debate, the article was questioned by a group of 20 organizations, including Amnesty International, which in a letter presented to Congress warned that the mechanism is disproportionate and presents a risk to the enforcement of fundamental rights. The law is expected to be enacted this December.