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 08:40 2013 Saturday ,02 February

Saladin

GMT 19:26 2017 Sunday ,29 January

UK Government Criticizes US Refugee Ban

GMT 21:58 2011 Wednesday ,17 August

UN withdraws \"non-essential\" staff from Syria

GMT 17:49 2011 Monday ,08 August

Chain reaction: US markets open with loss

GMT 10:25 2011 Monday ,01 August

\'Alarming\' rise in pregnant women strokes

GMT 19:01 2011 Tuesday ,19 April

Leaders pledge aid to complete Chernobyl shelter

GMT 10:24 2017 Wednesday ,12 April

Japanese skater Asada bows out with 'no regrets'

GMT 20:22 2011 Friday ,15 April

Typhoon jets used for first time in Libya

GMT 19:49 2011 Saturday ,06 August

Qatari Diar edges closer in Olympic Village move

GMT 11:22 2017 Monday ,23 January

US pop star defends explosive anti-Trump speech

GMT 17:32 2017 Thursday ,14 December

UN mediator on Syria 'undermined' by his Putin appeal

GMT 12:08 2012 Monday ,09 January

Sony enters BBC TV fold

GMT 11:14 2017 Wednesday ,11 January

Brawn v. brains, looks v. loyalty

GMT 08:39 2016 Thursday ,29 December

The Experience That Shocked My Thoughts Into Words

GMT 01:45 2012 Friday ,24 August

10 ways to live like honeymooners

GMT 16:17 2016 Friday ,12 August

Libyan forces capture Sirte complex from Daesh men

GMT 13:07 2015 Thursday ,15 October

2015 becomes worst US wildfire year on record

GMT 03:06 2016 Friday ,01 July

Decades of design on display

GMT 18:49 2017 Saturday ,04 March

Jordan executes 15 convicts, including 10 suicides

GMT 23:36 2015 Monday ,15 June

2 die, new corona case in Saudi Arabia

GMT 06:19 2011 Wednesday ,21 September

12 workers killed, scores missing from India Quake
 
 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