Connect with us

Politics

Bolsonarism uses Telegram to destabilize

Published

on

Bolsonarism uses Telegram to destabilize

One topic that has not come out of the mouth of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is the perceived fragility of electronic voting machines as a way to delegitimize the Brazilian electoral process. In the same vein, this issue also dominates far-right Telegram groups.

Leticia Cesarino, Professor of Anthropology and Graduate Program in Social Anthropology (PPGAS) at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), studies Bolsonarist behavior in groups in depth and points out: [assuntos] more generally, the programs and narratives that stand out in the set of groups and channels that we analyze should not necessarily refer to a direct accusation of electoral fraud, but to the delegitimization of institutionality that guarantees the outcome of elections. “.

See also: Heleno, Ramos and Abin have been conducting an attack on electronic voting machines since 2019, notes PF.

:: Deconstructing lies: Electronic voting machines are verifiable and safer than printed ballots ::

“And it is the ultra-right, allies of President Jair Bolsonaro, who dominate this environment. On these more underground platforms like Telegram, the right is completely dominated. The way they market themselves as content producers has to do with revealing the truth that the media is hiding. And that’s how they win the loyalty of their followers,” he adds.

The idea of ​​”revealing the truth” also sets the tone for Bolsonaro’s actions. Last July, the retired captain promised to present evidence of alleged electoral fraud during the 2018 elections. The incumbent then said that he would in fact have won the election in the first round. However, shortly thereafter, the “truth” revealed turned out to be nothing more than old and false claims that electronic voting machines had completed voting for the PT number in absentia at the voters’ choice.

Check out the interview with Leticia Cesarino below.

Brazil de Fato: What has changed since the 2018 presidential election to date regarding the production and dissemination of disinformation on social media in Brazil, especially considering the extreme right?

Letizia Cesarino: The machine runs at full speed but looks different than it did in 2018 when it had an expansive nature. After she hit [a máquina] succeeded in expanding beyond those segmented groups and influencers more rooted in Bolsonaris. Mostly through WhatsApp one can see a very large capillarity of the campaign.

This year, when it comes to re-election, with four years in office, a pandemic, Lula’s return to the race, Bolsonarism is having a hard time. The ecosystem was shrinking in size compared to what it was in the campaign. But apparently, they “replenish” the electoral machine itself, just like in 2018.


Fake news and misinformation reveal how the Bolsonaro government is handling the pandemic / Reproduction Arte IQC

Now this model of using the machine has changed not only to increase the electoral base, but also to destabilize the very legitimacy of the elections. This has always been the case, including with this issue of electoral fraud. That was always one of the narratives, but at that moment it didn’t matter because Bolsonaro won and he had a lot of support.

See also  political project

This year, the agenda has taken shape and, at least according to the data we work with the Telegram platform, it is undoubtedly the dominant agenda this year. You [assuntos] more generally, the programs and narratives that stand out in the set of groups and channels that we analyze should not necessarily refer to a direct accusation of electoral fraud, but to the delegitimization of institutionality that guarantees the outcome of elections. .

On September 7, for example, the question of a health passport came to the fore, but in a certain way crossover with a program of electoral fraud. There were rumors that unvaccinated people would not be allowed to vote. So even if it’s not their agenda [naquele momento]The topic has been discussed since at least September.

The Internet environment in which fake news is produced and distributed seems to belong to the extreme right. The left, on the other hand, does not seem to have power over this territory. That’s all? Can one also find the industries left behind this production and distribution?

These more underground platforms like Telegram are dominated by the all-out right wing, it’s on a different scale. This is the right niche, and it will remain so, because they operate there. The political left has an interface with the mainstream media that the right, from MPs down, does not. They are nowhere to be found, except on the Internet. The niche belongs to them. So no matter how much the left grows, it remains their niche.

::Polls and Democracy: What Bolsonarist’s Print Vote Demand Shows::

The way they market themselves as content producers, pseudo-journalists, is about revealing the truth that the media is hiding. It makes no sense for them to move away from this, because this is how they attract consumers, declaring that after the Internet, the media will never again be able to hide anything. And that is how they earn the loyalty of their followers. This is typical of the media. On the left, not so much. There is one or another conspiracy channel, but they cannot be compared in scale.

Can the left somehow resist this dominance?

You can greatly increase the occupancy, but it is difficult to reach their level without crossing certain ethical and even legal boundaries. They will always be at the forefront, because there is no limit to distortion and sensationalism, because it is based on efficiency. If the media goes viral, the content will follow suit and the trend is for the sensation to go viral. This is the differential of these media in relation to the mainstream media.

See also  Taliban to step up negotiations to form government one week after seizure of Kabul - Observer

But it is important to fight at least to take advantage of this advantage that the far right has. The left is improving, but it’s a matter of organicity. The left needs organic channels. It doesn’t make sense for PT to have a great communications strategy to speak the language of the internet if it doesn’t have an organic network of creators.


Bolsonaro is strictly following the strategy adopted by the American far right, insisting on charges of voter fraud that resulted in his election as president in 2018 / Antonio Augusto/Ascom/TSE

The organic web got its right thanks to this normal circulation. The issue of threats is very important because it keeps people connected beyond the issue of information disclosure. Now it’s possible to have it on the left, and it should be too. This disclosure bias can be exploited further.

In 2018, WhatsApp was a very important platform for the dissemination of fake political and election news. Has it changed somehow? Can we name important new platforms for this network of production and dissemination of disinformation?

Changed, changed a lot. The platforms that were important in 2018, WhatsApp and Facebook, remain important, but the ecosystem as a whole has diversified. We have, for example, TikTok, which, although not big, has investments from Bolsonaro. Instagram itself, which is not often used for political purposes, is associated with bolsonarism, with misinformation about early treatment, alternative sciences and anti-vaccination programs.

See also: Understand why Bolsonarism is trying to feed the contest to electronic voting machines

Bolsonarism has diversified into different platforms. For example, Telegram is one of the most underground, with very closed and radical groups. We are trying to consider the relationship between these more closed segments, which we call refracted, with a more superficial segment, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which, by all indications, are more important than Telegram in terms of capillarity.

This investment by Bolsonaro in TikTok is clear. Youtube has the nature of producing fake news, while WhatsApp has the nature of broadcasting. Come to think of it, what is the role of TikTok?

TikTok already has specialized content. But it’s usually disguised content that sits in that gray area between entertainment and political propaganda. The network has this profile, but quantitatively it is still not important. Now TikTok videos are also being distributed on WhatsApp, so there is traffic too.

What about other more alternative platforms used by the extreme right?

This is another clearer pattern that didn’t exist in 2018: alternative platforms like Gettr, Rumble, BitChute and others that are copying other platforms.”inclusion” [dominantes] how they began to tighten content moderation, ban channels, ban content from Twitter itself. So they started moving to these alternative platforms, which they didn’t have in 2018.

See also  Dr. Augusto Cesar Leite: 136 stories of the doctor and politician who changed the history of Sergipe | Sergeep


Blogger Allan dos Santos, an ally of President Bolsonaro, is under investigation in Brazil for spreading fake news / Reproduction

One thing that has changed is that the content feels more spontaneous, in the sense that in 2018 this style of campaign or this language for politics was new. So, at first, the content was closely related to what the press called the “hate office”, which we still don’t know exactly who is behind it. Four years later, the president’s own supporters organically included this working modecopying yourself.

And then there is another model that already existed in 2018 but is becoming more and more obvious, and that is the monetization issue, mostly related to YouTube. So for many of these activists, it really became a kind of entrepreneurship. There is even a certainmainstreamingfrom this right. They are already colonizing media niches within the public sphere itself.

You were talking about YouTube. What is the size and importance of Youtube today in creating and spreading misinformation?

Telegram circulates a lot of links to YouTube video channels. YouTube assumes it has control over the platform, which it doesn’t because it’s connected to everyone else. Bolsonarism takes advantage of this.

See also: Eduardo Bolsonaro and the Bolsonarists lead fake news against the elections

We see that the number of Youtube in Telegram is five to six times greater than on the second platform, which is Telegram itself. In other words, the second most common platform is Telegram itself, and Youtube is the first, only it is far ahead. There are relationships there that are structural even between the two of them. So the role of YouTube is very big because YouTube monetizes it.

What is a long tail and what does it mean?

The long tail is small. This is a very fragmented network structure, consisting of many small ones and a few large ones. [produtores de conteúdo, sejam grupos ou indivíduos] there. On YouTube, we see the same pattern, with the three or four large Bolsonarismo channels getting the most links, with 60% to 70% scattered across small to medium channels that are trying to gain attention and scale within an extreme ecosystem. is their medium to eventually become one of those big channels for monetization.

What is the interface between Telegram and Youtube? Out of 100 channels, 10 are large channels with hundreds of thousands of views, and the vast majority, the long tail, are smaller channels that don’t yet have that scale to monetize, but are trying that scale.

Editing: Felipe Mendez

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

The dollar continues to reflect the political scenario

Published

on

The dollar continues to reflect the political scenario

Yesterday, financial agents evaluated the opposite decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) regarding the so-called secret budget. In addition, a decision was made by STF Minister Gilmar Méndez to issue an injunction that would exclude the Bolsa Família from the spending cap rule, with investors trying to understand how this measure would affect the processing of the transitional PEC in the Chamber of Deputies. Oh this PEC!!!!

Since he is an exchange investor, any reading that the budget will be exceeded or become more flexible will negatively affect the exchange market, whether through the PEC or in any other way. We will continue with volatility today.

Looking beyond, the US Central Bank (Fed), although slowing down the pace of monetary tightening at its December meeting, issued a tougher-than-expected statement warning that its fight against inflation was not yet over, raising fears that rising US interest rates will push the world’s largest economy into recession.

The currency market continues to react to political news. The voting on the PEC is saved for today. It is expected that it will indeed be reviewed to open the way tomorrow for discussions on the 2023 budget.

Yesterday, the spot price closed the selling day at R$5.3103.

For today on the calendar we will have an index of consumer confidence in the eurozone. Good luck and good luck in business!!

See also  Dr. Augusto Cesar Leite: 136 stories of the doctor and politician who changed the history of Sergipe | Sergeep
Continue Reading

Politics

Andrés Sánchez consults with the Ministry of Sports, but refuses a political post.

Published

on

Goal.com

The former president of the Corinthians dreams of working for the CBF as a national team coordinator. He was consulted shortly after Lula’s election.

Former Corinthians president Andrés Sánchez was advised to take a position in the Ministry of Sports under the administration of Lula (PT). However, he ruled out a return to politics. dreams of taking over the coordination of CBF selectionHow do you know PURPOSE.

No formal invitation was made to the former Corinthian representative, only a consultation on a portfolio opportunity with the new federal government, which will be sworn in on January 1, 2023.

Andrés was the Federal MP for São Paulo from 2015 to 2019. At that time he was elected by the Workers’ Party. However, the football manager begs to stay in the sport, ruling out the possibility of getting involved in politics again.

Andrés Sanchez’s desire is to fill the position of CBF tackle coordinator, which should become vacant after the 2022 World Cup. Juninho Paulista fulfills this function in Brazil’s top football institution.

The former president of Corinthians was in Qatar to follow the World Cup along with other figures in Brazilian football. During his time in the country, he strengthened his ties with the top leadership of the CBF.

See also  The Planalto Center is public funds for civil servants, says the political scientist.
Continue Reading

Politics

The EU has reached a political agreement on limiting gas prices – 19.12.2022

Published

on

Germany sentenced Russian to life imprisonment for political murder by order of Moscow - 12/15/2021
BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 19 (ANSA). European Union countries reached a political agreement on Monday (19) to impose a natural gas price ceiling of 180 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). The main sources of income for Russia and the minimization of the use of energy as a weapon by the regime of Vladimir Putin.

The agreement was approved by a supermajority at a ministerial meeting of member states in Brussels, Belgium, after months of discussions about the best way to contain the rise in natural gas prices in the bloc caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. .

The value set by the countries is well below the proposal made by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, in November: 275 EUR/MWh. However, the countries leading the cap campaign were in favor of an even lower limit, around 100 EUR/MWh.

Germany, always wary of price controls, voted in favor of 180 euros, while Austria and the Netherlands, also skeptical of the cap, abstained. Hungary, the most pro-Russian country in the EU, voted against.

The instrument will enter into force on 15 February, but only if natural gas prices on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange exceed 180 euros/MWh for three consecutive days. In addition, the difference compared to a number of global benchmarks should be more than 35 euros.

Italy, the EU’s biggest supporter of the ceiling, has claimed responsibility for the measure. “This is a victory for Italy, which believed and worked for us to reach this agreement,” Environment and Energy Minister Gilberto Picetto tweeted.

“This is a victory for Italian and European citizens who demand energy security,” he added.

See also 

Currently, the gas price in Amsterdam is around 110 EUR/MWh, which is already a reflection of the agreement in Brussels – in August the figure even broke the barrier of 340 EUR/MWh.

However, Russia has already threatened to stop exports to countries that adhere to the ceiling. (ANSA).

See more news, photos and videos at www.ansabrasil.com.br.

Continue Reading

Trending