Dis-information in Brazilian democracy
A large group of citizens altered public order, invading the Presidential Palace, the Congress and the Supreme Court in Brazil expressing disagreement with the result of the elections in which a victory was determined by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, representing parties associated with the ideology of left. They also stated emphatically that the elections were manipulated by state institutions.
Given the changes, the entities responsible for investigating the events determined that these alterations were the product of misinformation, mainly motivated by the media and its dissemination through social networks and messaging applications. The medium especially accused was the television program Jovem Pan, which also has a network of pro-Bolsonaro websites, social networks, and radio channels.
Young pan he pronounced stating that he did not agree with the violence carried out by the demonstration and accused the leftist movement of having infiltrated the peaceful marches promoted by the pro-Bolsonaro movement, likewise, he indicated that the media are an open space for debate. However, Rodrigo Constantino, one of the most radical journalists on the show, was fired by the network and his Twitter account was suspended by order of the Supreme Court for "spreading false information with the potential to incite anti-democratic acts."
One of the problems raised by the experts in terms of disinformation, it is the lack of motivation of citizens to identify the authenticity of the information received, as well as the lack of objective capacity to differentiate opinion content from rigorous information.
Humberto Ribeiro, legal director of Sleeping Giants Brazil, indicated that "companies must incorporate issues related to good management practices into decision-making processes to avoid being involved in disinformation activities and hate speech." However, the fight against disinformation has not yet been resolved due to the evidence of risks in terms of freedom of expression, especially in digital contexts.
Given the measures carried out by research institutions and some platforms (such as Twitter) the silencing of those accused of encouraging justice into their own hands has been celebrated. Faced with this, there are positions against the Boycott against Jovem Pan and other media, since it is argued that it is an indirect way of wanting to censor a media outlet against speeches that are not liked but that do not necessarily cease to be protected by freedom. expression.
Several of the conclusions that have been observed after what happened in Brazil and also in United States with the capture of the Capitol, is that (i) there are democratic risks in the spread of false information as it aims to influence public opinion; (ii) the media, especially social networks, facilitate access to false information; (iii) this docile influence occurs as a consequence of the distrust that exists towards State institutions, which is why (iv) platforms are used to question the elections, a machine that Donald Trump has made fashionable called also as “the manual of the denial of the elections”.
However, it is worth considering several points; Given the events that occurred in Brazil in judicial matters, is the media of disinformation that puts democracy at risk being analyzed correctly? Or are we supporting the different forms of silencing opinions that we don't like or that we don't like?
This approach is important to highlight, due to the intentions of the new Brazilian government to regulate disinformation, an intention reflected in the letter presented to Unesco at the "Internet For Trust" conference by Luiz Inácio Lula. Over there Indian that "The international community needs, from now on, to work to give effective answers to this challenging question of our time." Projection the urgency of regulating social networks and encouraging due diligence of the companies of these platforms to act quickly in the face of possible false news and thus prevent its dissemination.
Said purpose was materialized through initiatives presented to Congress to force Internet platforms to remove "undemocratic" content, it will be necessary to see what this concept refers to and to what extent it intends to do so. People have the right to believe that the elections have been rigged, so the fine line between the regulation of disinformation and freedom of expression puts the different democracies on the continent at risk.
