Reparação civil por publicações ofensivas à honra nas redes sociais: meios de reparação e critérios para arbitramento do quantum indenizatório na jurisprudência do Superior Tribunal de Justiça

Abstract

This article deals with the jurisprudence of the Superior Tribunal de Justiça regarding compensation for moral damages resulting from offensive publications on social networks. Using the hypothetical-deductive method, through a bibliographic survey, are addressed the possibility of pecuniary compensation for moral damages, the evolution of the treatment given by legislation and jurisprudence to the subject and the civil-constitutional treatment of civil responsibility as a form to base the moral damage on the dignity of the human person and, thus, avoid subjective parameters for the arbitration of compensation, such as reasonableness. It also explains the nature of network communications, the dilemmas faced by the Law in protecting honor against offenses published on social networks, as well as non-pecuniary means of repairing the damage. Finally, a search for the jurisprudence of the Superior Tribunal de Justiça is carried out in its official repository, through the search for the keywords “moral damage” and “social network”, with the aim of identifying what are the means of repairing the damage requested in lawsuits whose object is the honor offense on social networks, and, in cases of pecuniary compensation, what are the criteria used to maintain, increase or reduce the quantum of compensation. As a result, it was possible to verify that monetary compensation is the means of compensation present in all the decisions found, and that the most used criterion for arbitration of compensation is reasonableness, a parameter that gives the judge the possibility of freely deciding the value to be arbitrated for the compensation.