Disinformation, the election hero in Brazil

By Osvaldo Cardusa

Prensa Latina correspondent in Brazil

This is how a recent document from 16 entities, including the Arens Commission for the Defense of Human Rights, warns complaints about fundamental safeguards violations in the South American giant.

Among other groups, the statement was also signed by the Association of Judges for Democracy, Conectas for Human Rights, the Brazilian Press Association and the Brazilian Forum for Public Security.

The signatories in the text warn that by gaining space in the election campaign, “disinformation hampers public debate on the issues most relevant to the country.” It also recognizes that conducting vote counts amid the massive influx of disinformation “posed an enormous challenge to electoral justice.”

Scholars assert that this massive disinformational rhetorical production, especially in social networks, follows the trend of peak circulation of URLs (locator for searching content on the web) in election years, but remains consistent in other calendars.

It highlights the harmful effects of spreading false statements, questioning the legitimacy of the electoral process, the validity of democracy, and distrust of the authorities.

From the point of view, the most shared links generally republish the old content easily accessible online, the gestures or clothing of the applicants, as well as the publication of incomplete parts of the audiovisual material in which the candidate presents a clear idea, however, in the full article reveals the opposite . .

samples of missiles

For example, Minister Paolo de Tarso Sanseverino, of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), decided on October 24 to remove false news that had been disseminated in a coordinated manner by Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Representative Carla Zampelli, and Chancellor Nicolas Ferreira, as well as other followers of the leader Far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for re-election for the Liberal Party.

The fake news was posted on the social network Twitter and it was reported that former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, a candidate of the PT, was wearing a hat with the acronym CPX which means cubincha (partner), or ally of a criminal faction.

In fact, the acronym is simply an acronym that refers to Complexo do Alemão, a community in Rio de Janeiro that the former unionist visited during the campaign. Monitoring agencies have shown that the term CPX on the max is used by residents and official bodies to refer to this community.

“It is necessary to recognize that the publication of these contents, without any evidentiary support, could adversely conflict with the will of the voter,” the Supreme Electoral Court judge wrote.

Another example is a video widely shared by Bolsonaristas (supporters of a former military officer) in which Lula states that “it is necessary to lie, politicians must lie.”

However, in the full statement during his interview with Flow, an online radio broadcast, the Labor leader commented these words on the former paratrooper, whom he called a compulsive liar, seconds later.

In a rainbow of lies, Bolsonaro’s campaign with pictures distorts the realities of other countries in the region under progressive governments and warns that if they vote for the former mechanical converter, that is how Brazil will end.

It was astonishing how there was audio-visual tampering of farmers being attacked in Argentina “by the hungry population”, when in fact they were recorded for looting in Colombia, in April 2021, during the protests against the government of Ivan Duque.

Recently, Lula campaign lawyers scored 72 wins in the TSE, in particular the dropping of 50 false news that led to misinformation.

According to Veja magazine, the fake news was spread through various profiles on social networks.

According to representatives of the former president, members of Congress and other supporters of Bolsonaro form the so-called system of disinformation, which jurists denounced through an investigative procedure.

Put the range

To stem this scourge, the Supreme Court on October 25 voted against the appeal of the Attorney General’s Office that demanded the suspension of excerpts from the new Electoral Justice Resolution on disinformation and false news in elections.

A majority of STF ministers agreed to uphold Judge Edson Fachin’s decision, who rejected the prosecution’s request to suspend portions of TSE rulings that seek to expedite the removal of content containing misinformation from social networks in the electoral period.

This decision was approved unanimously at the court hearing on October 20. Among other points, it states that the court can decide to remove from the air social networks and campaigns, within a maximum of two hours, links containing “fake news”.

Fachin, of the STF, previously rejected the first request of the Republic’s attorney general, Augusto Arras, who sees the risk of censorship in part of the procedure.

Arras appealed the judge’s decision and reiterated the understanding that the new ruling reinforces “prior censorship.”

The order of the Electoral Court expands its police powers, for example, to remove content on digital sites and profiles on social networks that duplicate content that electoral justice has judged to be actually false.

The head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Alexandre de Moraes, revealed that complaints about false information received by major platforms increased by 1,600 percent in the second round.

The Attorney General’s office claims that the powers enshrined in the law are ineffective in controlling the dissemination of false information on the Internet, while representing an “undeniable restriction of freedom of expression,” in violation of the Constitution.

In this regard, Fachin stated that freedom of expression, for example, cannot be used to attack democracy itself.

“Freedom of expression cannot be exercised on the basis of lies and reality that cannot be shared, as this constitutes an obstacle to the collective and individual right of third parties to obtain correct information,” the judge wrote.

The portal lula.com.br notes that Truth on the Net is part of the former president’s campaign and has been working tirelessly to combat the lies, threats and hate speech produced by Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Addicted to lies, abuse and misinformation, the incumbent president has never dismantled his mechanism for spreading false news and favoring reality-biased narratives. He did so in violation of the laws, using the public machine and exploiting economic power. On a daily basis, he pours (and continues to pour) slanders, assaults, and crimes into the public debate attacking Lula’s honor and legacy,” the site deplores.

It reveals that since March to date, Truth on the Net has received 22,451 complaints, registered 1,280 denials of false news published by verification agencies and published 718 of its own content.

Lula won the first round of the referendum on October 2, with 48.43% of the vote, against Bolsonaro, who received 43.20.

Since none of the claimants of power achieved in that first turn an absolute majority of the votes, i.e. more than half of the valid votes (excluding null and void statements), as provided by Brazilian law to be elected, they will object to a second lawsuit at the polls on Next sunday.

arp / ocs