social media in the spotlight in brazil presidential race
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Social media in the spotlight in Brazil presidential race

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Social media in the spotlight in Brazil presidential race

Facebook closed 68 pages and 43 accounts.
Rio De Janeiro - Egypt Today

Brazil, like other countries, is facing a very electronic election. WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are the weapons of choice to sway the country’s 147 million voters — and abuse of social media has been widespread.

Facebook and its WhatsApp messenger service — hugely popular in the Latin American nation — have been thrust into the spotlight for being used to traffic in disinformation.

The extreme-right frontrunner in the run-off election on Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro, has largely eschewed Brazil’s established media, preferring to woo voters online in a manner very reminiscent of US President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro’s trailing rival, leftwing candidate Fernando Haddad, has raged against “fake news” and “lies” targeting him and his Workers Party, as Bolsonaro’s support has grown into what looks to be an unassailable lead.

Surveys suggest Bolsonaro could pick up 59 percent of the vote, to 41 percent for Haddad.

If the race goes in that direction, Brazil — a country that threw off military dictatorship just three decades ago — will veer to the far right, under a president Bolsonaro vowing a relentless crackdown on crime and corruption.

This week, the 63-year-old former paratrooper, a pro-gun lawmaker backed by influential evangelical groups, warned the “red marginals” of the Workers Party “to get out or go to jail.”

The language online is just as blunt, mixing truth with lies, or presenting opinions as fact. Many shared posts amplify the Workers Party’s past corruption. Some portray Haddad as trying to promote homosexuality in schoolchildren. Others, those backing Haddad, call Bolsonaro a “fascist” bent on destroying democracy.

Accusations of defamation and campaign dirty tricks are flying back and forth. The federal police have opened an investigation into online “fake news” against both candidates.

The potential of social media to influence Brazil’s election also evokes the revelations of meddling that came out in the wake of the US election and the Brexit referendum in Britain, both in 2016.

Facebook, its reputation badly marred by those revelations, said on Monday it has closed 68 pages and 43 accounts linked to a Brazilian marketing group, Raposos Fernandes Associates, that media reported was promoting Bolsonaro online on a massive scale.

WhatsApp said it has shuttered hundreds of thousands of accounts to counter “spam or disinformation” after a report saying several companies had been hired for $3 million each to send bulk messages attacking Haddad and the Workers Party. Bolsonaro has denied having anything to do with the contracts.

A WhatsApp executive, Victoria Grand, vice president for policy and communications, told reporters in Sao Paulo on Tuesday that the company had no plans to lift a 20-recipient cap for forwarded messages imposed in July, down from a previous limit of 250 recipients.

“We’re pretty comfortable with that number,” she said, implicitly rejecting a call Bolsonaro made last week for the smaller cap to be overturned.
Grand stated: “I know this is a critical moment for Brazil.”

WhatsApp is one of preferred methods for communicating in Brazil. The country, population 210 million, has 120 million WhatsApp users.
Bolsonaro, a previously obscure lawmaker, is a deft user of social media, just like Trump, for whom he has expressed admiration.

After being stabbed last month by a lone assailant, Bolsonaro intensified his online use while convalescing. His Facebook videos, tweets and Instagram posts have millions of followers, far more than Haddad, a 55-year-old former mayor of Sao Paulo who is telegenic but restrained in manner.

Further frustrating Haddad, Bolsonaro has dodged the usual televised debates. Instead of dueling over policies, he has harangued and attacked his rival on the Internet.

According to an Oxford University study of Brazil’s presidential election, Bolsonaro dominated Twitter conversations and “Bolsonaro supporters spread the widest range of known junk news sources,” though Haddad supporters shared the biggest volume.

 

But Twitter is used by a much smaller, better-informed niche than the more generally adopted WhatsApp.

One of the researchers on the study done by the Oxford Internet Institute, Nahema Marchal, cautioned that it was “extremely difficult to make causal claims between what people see online and how they vote” and that “every election is different.”

“Like the US, however, Brazil has seen a number of popular political Facebook groups hacked. There has also been an uptick in political violence, in what has been a bitter and divisive campaign,” she said.

While digital technology use differs from country to country, “research indicates that disinformation and conspirational content circulates faster than factual information on social media,” she said, in large part because online content “is often the most emotionally-charged.”

From :Arabnews

 

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

social media in the spotlight in brazil presidential race social media in the spotlight in brazil presidential race



GMT 07:22 2017 Monday ,20 November

Honda recalls 800,000 minivans over faulty seats

GMT 07:15 2017 Thursday ,30 November

Colombian President invites UAE companies

GMT 13:44 2013 Wednesday ,07 August

Chinese game developers bet on smartphone games

GMT 10:30 2011 Tuesday ,23 August

The Arab-Spanish investment forum 2011

GMT 10:49 2017 Monday ,06 November

Britain frozen out as EU finance chiefs plot future

GMT 14:30 2017 Wednesday ,06 December

India scent Test victory as pollution makes bowlers vomit

GMT 12:32 2018 Tuesday ,16 October

Runaway former sex offender nabbed in Thailand

GMT 16:34 2017 Wednesday ,01 March

Afghan capital attack toll jumps to 16

GMT 20:32 2013 Monday ,17 June

Porsche finds a new target audience

GMT 10:13 2011 Sunday ,31 July

Distressed debt firm eyes Nakheel creditors

GMT 18:25 2016 Thursday ,08 September

Ex-Lankan president’s ‘vanity airline’ grounded

GMT 21:02 2018 Wednesday ,05 September

Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes Russia’s Urals region

GMT 18:54 2014 Tuesday ,14 January

Cobalt nanoparticles applied in designing biosensor

GMT 12:00 2013 Wednesday ,31 July

Saudi consumers given teeth whitening kit warning

GMT 14:26 2014 Wednesday ,12 February

Earthquake behind shroud of Turin image

GMT 08:58 2014 Wednesday ,15 January

\'Lone Survivor\' blows away North American box office

GMT 15:32 2015 Sunday ,27 September

Thousands march to remember Mexico's missing students

GMT 01:25 2017 Thursday ,05 January

Strong Earthquake Strikes Off Coast of Fiji

GMT 12:51 2011 Friday ,08 July

No plans to merge Gazprom and Naftogaz
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday