Bolsonaro and his faithful seek refuge on Telegram to avoid being silenced for misinforming

The popularity of Jair Bolsonaro in the electoral polls of Brazil decreases month by month. But that didn't stop him from starring in an eloquent show of force online a few weeks ago. The president was chosen person of the year by

magazine

. It was true, but with a nuance. It was chosen by readers in a digital poll; The weekly, however, crowned the billionaire owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, as the most influential person of 2021. The Brazilian extreme right won among netizens with a quarter of nine million votes, well ahead of his admired Donald Trump. Thanks to the mobilization of his followers, the president recalled that he maintains his digital power.

The campaign for

to elect Bolsonaro was forged on Telegram, the new favorite digital space of the Brazilian and other world leaders of the right that erodes democracy.

It is the place where they seek refuge from the measures against misinformation and false news that Facebook, Twitter, Google or YouTube are adopting.

The half truths and lies that circulate on social networks played a leading role in the last elections in Brazil.

The internet was crucial in Bolsonaro's victory.

With their sights set on the elections next October, the electoral authorities are especially concerned about Telegram, which is rapidly gaining users and with which they are not even able to establish an interlocution.

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BRAZIL |

#BOLSONARO runs an electoral campaign on TELEGRAM

Video: EPV

Days after Bolsonaro emerged as one of

's personalities of the year , the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, wrote to Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov, a 37-year-old Russian-born programmer. The judge requested that his company collaborate in efforts to combat misinformation. He supported the petition on two facts: the application is downloaded on half of the Brazilian mobiles and "right now conspiracy theories and false information about the electronic voting system are being disseminated through Telegram," the email says. The Russian Zuckerberg has not responded. The Dubai-based company has no representatives in Brazil.

The landing of Bolsonarism (and Trumpism) on Telegram began just a year ago, after the assault on the Capitol, when Twitter suspended Trump's account for inciting that violent protest. The most powerful politician in the world until then was left without his main speaker and Bolsonaro took note. "Register on my official Telegram channel," the Brazilian asked his faithful. The campaign began to seek refuge in a place with fewer restrictions on the digital strategy that catapulted him to power. And it worked. The retired military man accumulates a long million followers, more than any other world leader. They are followed by Trump (with an unofficial profile) and the presidents of Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia and Mexico, according to a report by the Jornalismo Nucleus that investigates the impact of social networks on the lives of Brazilians.

The last election was the most polarized in the history of Brazil.

This will also be dog-faced and foul play is likely to abound.

Brazil is fertile ground for misinformation, explained fact-checker Cristina Tardáguila in a recent

podcast .

He listed three reasons: the news scene is a wasteland outside of São Paulo, Rio and Brasilia because there is no independent press, 80% of Brazilians report mainly on WhatsApp and verifiers are lacking.

A Bolsonaro supporter takes a selfie with a doll of the president's image at the Maracana stadium.Fabio Teixeira (Getty Images)

Added to this is a population hooked on the Internet like that of few countries, great distrust in the institutions and an anti-science president who sows doubts about the vote.

A cocktail with great potential for disinformation to contaminate the campaign and the elections with the added fear that the president will not recognize the result if he loses.

"Telegram has become an important tool for politicians to speak to their bases because it has fewer moderation controls (of content than other applications) and offers more transmission resources," explains the report by Núcleo Jornalismo.

Bolsonaro's channel is propaganda 2.0, a torrent of information about government achievements with the incentive that anyone can comment from anonymity.

Phrases like "what you will not know from the press" are the typical hook.

This messaging application was created by Durov in 2013. Proof of the moment of success that he lives, the 70 million new users that he added in a single day in October. At first glance it is a kind of WhatsApp. Even the look is similar, but the rules for moderation of speech are much more lax. It vetoes incitement to violence, terrorism and pornography, but offers a free bar to those who grotesquely distort the facts or lie without shame. Great advantage for a politician like Bolsonaro to whom Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have already deleted messages for misinforming. Trump's precedent weighs.

Telegram also allows groups of 200,000 people compared to 256 on WhatsApp, a limit created to stop the viralization of false news such as those that circulated strongly in the previous campaign.

It is enough to join a channel, without invitation.

If Zuckerberg's messaging service starred in the 2018 elections, this time it might be time for this application.

Bolsonaro has been followed to this new digital territory by his children, like-minded deputies and relevant Bolsonaristas figures such as blogger Allan dos Santos, investigated for spreading false news, a fugitive from Brazilian justice and banned from other networks.

For the faithful to the president, Do Santos is a martyr for freedom of expression and the judges of the Supreme Court, mere censors of critical voices.

Bolsonaro's followers closely follow one of his transmissions on social networks.Getty Image

In its strategy against disinformation, the Superior Electoral Court has managed to get Google to establish new requirements for contracting political propaganda and a commitment to publicly inform who pays for the ads.

The highest electoral authority is also holding talks with other large technology companies so that the elections are clean.

Bolsonaro disdains the traditional press. Since he is president, he has gone on to a frontal attack against the big media. He prefers the galaxy formed by social networks, where he has 45 million followers. For him, Telegram is one more channel "to interact with the people." Of course, without the hassle of being held accountable or responding to too much criticism. It's your comfort zone because it's cold outside now. It is more and more frequent that the president hears whistles in his controlled public appearances and criticism is constant for his management of the pandemic, inflation and unemployment.

Since he was rehabilitated, Lula da Silva has strengthened his presence on social media.

But it is light years away from the numbers of followers of Bolsonarismo.

On Telegram he is accompanied by 46,000 followers and on Twitter, three million, but the habitat where the former trade unionist really feels comfortable is the analog world, that of rallies and hugs.

Although the pandemic has prevented him from resuming the melee, for months he has comfortably led the polls against Bolsonaro.

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