Democracia em rede, liberdade de expressão e poder privado das plataformas digitais: entre a proibição da censura, a responsabilidade por abusos e a construção de um espaço público digital paritário

This article examines the legal tension between freedom of expression, the protection of fundamental rights, and the exercise of private power by digital platforms in the contemporary public sphere. It argues that network democracy should neither be understood as a space of absolute freedom, immune to accountability, nor as an environment subject to generalized prior control of speech. The study adopts a legal-dogmatic, constitutional, and interdisciplinary approach, articulating normative analysis of the Brazilian legal system, bibliographic review grounded in contemporary constitutionalism and social communication theory, and examination of paradigmatic precedents from the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice, with emphasis on Binding Precedents Themes 533 and 987. It is argued that the legally adequate balance does not lie in the absence of rules, but in the construction of a constitutionally accountable digital governance, grounded in procedural parity, which rejects prior censorship, preserves the core of freedom of expression, addresses concrete abuses, imposes transparency and proportionality on private moderation, and ensures effective mechanisms for user challenge, in light of the principle of the social function of law.